DUEL
by fantasy1290
Summary: What if when Draco challenged Harry to a duel at the beginning of first year it had a lot more significance then either realized? A duel not only for bragging rights but for injustice and eventual love. Harry/Harem
1. First Duel

Duel Master

Prologue Reason to Duel

Albus Dumbledore sat in his office, currently still reflecting on the recent student additions to Hogwarts, particularly one Harry Potter, and what his future held. From what little he had already gleaned from the boy either through asking the staff, or a slight amount of legilimency he had performed on him gave him the idea that Harry was a good kid, and quite intelligent despite his apparent lack of knowledge on the wizarding world.

He hoped that he would be able to improve over time and live out the destiny he no doubt had.

Yet as he was still thinking about how he would handle the future savior of the wizarding world, the alarm that he had set to tell him if someone was coming up the stairs to his office went off.

A quick look at the stairs revealed that it was none other than Pansy Parkinson, a young new first year that he recognized already by having had numerous visits with her father, a very influential and wealthy man but who's loyalties were always unclear, particularly during the war with Voldemort.

Since Voldemort's fall, he had worked hard to cull favor with him, as it would be necessary to garner his approval if he was to have success in passing certain measures in the wizengamot or holding back ones he did not want passed.

Currently there were two major parties, those who supported greater benefits to purebloods, led by Lucius Malfoy, and the ones who argued for better equality and rights for all led by himself. Then there were those who remained not part of either party, of which Rabastan Parkinson, Pansy's father was included. Both sides had been trying for the last decade to get him to go over permanently to them, and vote along with them but so far it appeared he was still remaining neutral.

The fact that his daughter and only child was coming to see him was rather curious.

When she knocked on the door he immediately said, "Enter."

"Professor Dumbledore I need to speak with you," Pansy said as soon as she came in, sounding slightly out of breath.

"Of course I would be happy to help you with whatever you require if I can," Dumbledore answered.

"I know that you are a man who has a lot of power and influence, and I need you to do something for me that I feel would serve both of our interests," Pansy began, "you see I have just recently been informed that my father apparently made a marriage contract with myself and Draco Malfoy."

At this news, Dumbledore was quite dismayed as it probably meant that his efforts to pull Mr. Parkinson to his side were for naught, as making a marriage contract with his daughter to Malfoy's son was tantamount to him going over to them. This would be another vote he could now count on going against him.

"I am sorry to hear that Ms. Parkinson," Dumbledore replied, "I had hoped that your father would choose to go against Lucius Malfoy but it appears I was wrong."

"That's not all," Pansy told him, "he's gotten Davis, Greengrass, Li, Chang, Vasily, and Crowder to go with him."

Now he really sat back in his chair, this was not good, that would put Malfoy over the top in being able to pass any new bill or law he chose. The balance would be completely broken.

Pansy continued, "I am sure you already know what that means, and I also would hope that you would be willing to take the necessary steps to prevent it."

"May I ask why you are telling me all of this Ms. Parkinson?" Dumbledore interjected, "your father would no doubt be furious if he found out you were telling me all this."

"My father would never suspect me, as he still sees me as a naïve little girl, he doesn't even bother to check to see if I am listening in anyway," Pansy explained, "and as for why I am telling you, its simply because I want out of his little plan for me, I hate Malfoy's son first of all, he's an idiot and treats me like his slave and yet I keep having to cozy up to him because my father wants there to be no reason to lose the deal he has with Lucius. I also have nothing against those of lesser blood purity or muggles, and I would rather not have their persecutions from the laws that will be passed against them be on my conscious."

"I admire that, but what would you have me do to prevent this?" Dumbledore asked.

"I want you to get the contract annulled," Pansy asked, "and it has to be because of something that Draco does, if its something that I do then my father will be shamed, and as per the contract that he signed with Lord Malfoy, he will be obligated to give control of his seat over to him. I had someone I trust and possesses knowledge of magical law to look over the contract and they found that it will only be voided because of something that either Draco or his father does. You could for example expel him from Hogwarts which would give me the opportunity to claim that he was no longer a viable candidate to be my husband."

"I'm afraid you overestimate my capabilities," Dumbledore told her, "first of all Lucius Malfoy is one of the school governors and I find it very unlikely he would ever allow his son to be expelled, even if I could give a good enough reason for it, which currently there is none. I also have no doubts that the contract would be ironclad, so unless you can convince either Draco or his father to break it, my hands would be tied."

Pansy nodded as if she had been expecting such an answer and said: "I don't think my father really wants to join Lord Malfoy but he needs a new supplier of dragonhide and he also wants me married to the highest and most noble house he can find, which just so happens to be the Malfoys. I know he tried to make one with the Potters before they died but they had apparently already made one with the Bones.

Dumbledore's eyebrows rose. He had not expected anyone to have known that Harry Potter was betrothed to Susan Bones as it was a closely guarded secret, he did not want Harry finding out until he absolutely had to.

The only person that he had known knew was Susan's aunt Amelia, who had taken over as the head of House Bones after the death of Susan's parents, and had chosen to honor the original agreement made. She had been a huge support to him in the wizengamot. He also suspected that she had told Susan but asked her not to tell Harry.

"Can't you do something?" Pansy pleaded.

Dumbledore sat back in his chair once again to think about this troubling news. He simply could not afford to lose Parkinson and the rest, but he also could not think of a way to get him to go over to his side especially since the marriage contract would force his hand either way. If he had known beforehand he might have been able to do something, even if he had to, as Harry's legal magical guardian, sign another marriage contract with Parkinson to marry his daughter off to Harry, but now it was too late. The only ways he decided would be either for Malfoy to choose to break the contract, which was doubtful as the contract assured him of Parkinson's support and a majority in the Wizengamot, or if he gambled it away somehow and only a fool would take such a risk. It did not look good.

However he could at least deal with the problem of the young girl standing before him.

"Just who else knows about all of this," he asked.

"No one," she replied, "I didn't even tell the friend who I had look at the contract know what I was up to."

"Good," he stated as he raised his wand straight at her and yelled, "OBLIVIATE."

Instantly Pansy's gaze grew all misty and unfocused as he removed all memories of their conversation, Harry being betrothed to Susan Bones, or anything else he thought she shouldn't know. Then he replaced the memory with one of her having a conversation with him about a requested change in the school robes policy.

Once he had finished he allowed her to come to and said, "I'm sorry Ms. Parkinson but I'm afraid I can't change what is allowed at school, but thank you for your time."

Still a little dazed Pansy said, "yes, you are quite right professor, sorry, I'll see myself out."

As she left, he still thought about how to get out of the extremely difficult situation he found himself in and the only possible solution, when would Malfoy be stupid enough to gamble something that valuable enough away?

Chapter 1 First Duel

It had been only a few days since his conversation with Ms. Parkinson and he still had not yet come up with an answer to his problem, although his spy network of paintings had all been notified to keep an eye on any information he could use.

That was when one such portrait notified him of the information he had been looking for, far quicker and more easily than he would have ever suspected.

"Professor," the portrait of the kneazle saleswoman informed him, "I think you had better take advantage of this. Draco Malfoy just challenged Harry Potter to a duel."

"Where?" Dumbledore asked, knowing there was no time to delay to get details.

"Just down the hall," She said.

He left the office as fast his legs could move, it seemed almost heaven sent, the one thing he had been hoping for. Draco Malfoy had just taken the first steps to his undoing, a wizard's duel challenge and by him no less was perfect. He only hoped he managed to get there in time.

Thirty Seconds Earlier

Harry had been on his way to a class when Malfoy showed up in front of him.

"What do you want Malfoy?" Ron demanded angrily.

"You had better mind your manners, Weasley," Draco smugly said, "which is why I intend to teach your friend Potter a lesson."

"Yeah and how are you going to do that?" Ron asked and then decided to make a bold threat, "Harry could beat you any time, any place."

"That's it," Draco then stated, "wizard's duel tonight in the trophy room, you and me."

Harry was surprised that Draco was apparently challenging him to a fight, even though he had no idea what a wizard's duel was. Yet before he could come up with a reply to that, Ron had to open up his big mouth and declare: "he'll be there, and I'll be his 2nd, who's yours?"

Draco looked back at his two hulking bodyguards, probably trying to decide who was more intimidating before saying: "Crabbe."

Yet before he could answer, Professor Dumbledore appeared seemingly randomly in the hallway in front of them, sounding like he had been in a bit of a rush to wherever he had been going.

"Did I hear something about a wizard's duel?" Professor Dumbledore asked, sounding slightly out of breath.

"Of course not Professor," Draco tried to say, seeming to be worried about being punished for trying to start a fight.

"Well it appears that I must have misheard you then, my ears aren't what they used to be," Professor Dumbledore answered.

"Isn't fighting not allowed in school?" Ron asked, seeming to be trying to get Malfoy in trouble, "I know I heard him."

"Mr. Malfoy has done nothing wrong as far as I can tell Mr. Weasley," Dumbledore answered, "a wizard's duel is actually still allowed based on the school rules, although the usual to the death clause has been amended to a lesser state of lacking the capacity to continue dueling and also has to be officiated by the current headmaster. It has fallen out of use, however. Even back when I was your age it was pretty uncommon. So if you really are challenging Mr. Potter here I would be happy to officiate over the duel."

Malfoy seemed to look a bit nervous now, as he seemed to have had other ideas as to just how this would have gone had Dumbledore not overheard but looking at the now gathered crowd around them, he seemed to realize that rescinding it would actually make him look weak or a coward.

"I am Professor," Malfoy stated.

"Good," Dumbledore told him, "I shall make all of the arrangements, and if it is satisfactory to both parties we shall have it right after dinner in the great hall."

Harry was a bit nervous himself, but the image of crushing Malfoy's pathetic little blond head caused him to agree along with his opponent.

"Then if you both would please hold out your wands, and repeat after me, "I state your name, do hereby accept this wizard's duel, and swear upon my magic that if I am defeated that I will give the agreed upon property that is my own to my victor, so mote it be."

Both Harry and Draco repeated after him, ending with a small spark to jump from his wand, and cause a slight shock.

"Would you happen to know of a book about wizard duels?" Hermione asked, having been one of the people in the crowd now assembled around them.

"I'll save you the trouble Ms. Granger," Dumbledore told her, choosing to explain himself, "a wizard's duel is where two wizards who are unable to reconcile their differences agree to fight for their honor. For adults this usually means to the death, but for those not of age, this usually means until one of the combatants is unable to battle. The winner in either case then can claim some form of property that is owned by their defeated opponent which they will be magically obligated to pay or risk losing their magic."

"What type of property might that be?" Hermione asked.

"It usually varies, and can range from a single item such as a wizard's wand, to everything that wizard owns," Dumbledore replied, "however in this case since Draco technically does not own anything, as everything he has is really his father's, nothing should happen, you don't own anything do you Mr. Malfoy?"

"I do, actually Professor," Draco stated, "I have a marriage contract with Pansy Parkinson."

"That would be a form of property owned by you exclusively," Dumbledore agreed, sounding pleased for some reason at this information, "and since that is your only form of property that will have to be what you are putting up. Mr. Potter will have to put up a marriage contract of equal value."

"I don't have any marriage contracts though Professor," Harry said, still amazed that wizards apparently had marriage contracts.

"You do actually Harry," a slightly short girl with waist length red hair that he recognized as Susan Bones, a Hufflepuff in his year said as she came forward, "with me."

Now Harry was really worried as he apparently had a fiance he had never known about, nor had anyone bothered to tell him.

At his look of shock, however, Dumbledore seemed to take it in stride as if he had already known this and was pleased by it.

"You are absolutely correct Ms. Bones, he is betrothed to you, must have slipped my mind, well then I suppose that by default Mr. Potter is obligated to accept, especially since you just volunteered to put your contract up with him already, we will just have to..."

"WHAT THE FREAK IS GOING ON HERE?" Harry demanded.

"As I explained you will be dueling Mr. Malfoy here for the rights to his marriage contract with Ms. Parkinson," Dumbledore said smiling, as if expecting such a response and seeming to enjoy watching it, while completely ignoring the part about the marriage contract that he had hidden from him.

This only made Harry more incensed, in only 5 minutes he learned he was going to be dueling Malfoy in a highly dangerous magical fight, had a fiance and would be dueling for another one.

Hermione however chose to ask another question, "how can someone be betrothed to two different people at once?"

"In wizarding society," Dumbledore explained, "people that are heirs and heads of house of really high and ancient families, such as the Potters and the Malfoys can elect to have more than one spouse. Its another ancient rule that was never rescinded, but is no longer really followed. At any rate for the victor of the duel to win them both is perfectly acceptable."

Harry still felt like he was being taken advantage of somehow, but Dumbledore continued and said, "Well then I suppose I will just have to work out the details and just have you both be there for the duel after dinner."

"Okay," Harry answered meekly, as Dumbledore left.

Malfoy sent him another glare and then looked right at Susan before telling her, "it will be nice to be able to own you as well when Potter loses you to me."

Susan sent him a glare of her own before saying, "and I'll enjoy seeing the look on your face when you lose."

Malfoy chose not to answer that, only left with his two cronies Crabbe and Goyle, along with Pansy, who sent him a look of her own when Draco had already turned her back, that he couldn't quite figure out, perhaps hope, perhaps a silent plead to help her, he just wasn't sure.

Everyone else who stayed behind just wanted to wish him luck and encouragement on how to beat Malfoy.

Of course the fact that he only knew how to do one spell by now, flipendo, didn't seem to register on most people's minds, or the fact that Draco, as the son of a wealthy pureblood lord was bound to have been taught a few spells by his father when dueling.

He knew that he needed to go practice some spells if he was to have any chance of defeating Malfoy so he finally managed to get the crowd to disperse so that he could, leaving himself and Ron behind.

"You are totally going to destroy Malfoy," Ron stated, sounding like Dudley did when he was bragging about his favorite fighter, "no way the boy who lived loses to that peacock."

"Ron, you forget I don't even know how to perform any spells yet, and I have no idea how to duel, and I'll bet Malfoy does," Harry answered him.

"Come on," Ron told him, "stop with this act, you can at least tell me, this whole pathetic no knowledge of the wizarding world or how to do magic is getting old, you had to have been really powerful to have defeated You-know-who, nobody really believes the act, Malfoy will be a cinch and you know it."

"Ron I don't have super powers," Harry reminded him, "I"m not sure how I defeated Voldemort, but I'm just an ordinary wizard, and I have no idea how I am going to win the duel."

"Oh I see, you are still pretending now," Ron said as if he had been let in on some big secret, "you will probably show your great skills at the duel, in fact I'd reckon you and Dumbledore planned this."

"Why on earth would I plan this?" Harry asked incredulously.

"Because you're the boy who lived," Ron told him as if they made perfect sense as an argument, "you might as well be the boy who scored as well, and I'm told that Parkinson has a ton of money to inherit. Since I'm your second though I'd at least like you to give me some of her money when you win."

"I'm sorry Ron but I thought that at least by now you would have understood me better," Harry replied, "and as for being my second, I think I'd rather have someone else do it if you are going to be like this."

"Is that really how you want to treat your best and only friend?" Ron asked him, "just give me some of Pansy's money when we win and I'll forget you said that."

"No Ron," Harry said, he had only known Ron for a less than a week, and he had hoped that he had outgrown this hero worship and idiotic idealism but it appeared he most certainly hadn't, "I won't do that."

Ron looked really surprised that he had said that but finally answered angrily with, "then fine, find yourself another second."

He stormed off, leaving him seemingly alone as he wondered just how he was going to get out of this mess. He realized now that even if Ron was being an idiot he could have used him as he might have at least had an idea just how to duel, yet now he was alone and left to figure it out himself.

Yet as he put his head down inside of his hand in despair, he felt someone touch his arm.

Looking up he found that it was Susan.

"Sorry to bother you Harry, I just lingered back and overheard your conversation with Ron, and figured you could use some help," she told him, "especially since I am partially to blame you got into this mess in the first place."

"Are you going to go on about me being the boy who lived which means I shouldn't worry either?" He asked, "you did butt in and accept that challenge of Malfoy's."

"To be honest Harry," Susan answered, "I have no idea why I did what I did, its like some voice inside me made me do it, and I had no control over it, as for if I think what Ron thinks, after seeing the look on your face when you realized you would be dueling Malfoy, there was no way I could ever think that. I only told Malfoy you would win to unnerve him, you could use all the help you could get."

"I don't even know how to duel, and I only know one spell, flipendo, which won't do me any good in a duel," Harry admitted.

"Don't worry Harry," Susan responded, "I know a few spells you can use in duels, my aunt taught me before I left for Hogwarts, she's the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement so she's always been about being able to protect yourself. She got a waiver to be allowed to teach me a few basic spells, I'll teach you what I know, or at least as much as we can cover before the duel."

"Thank you," Harry told her gratefully.

"Besides I have a invested interest in you," she reminded him, "I am after all betrothed to you."

That only reminded him of the other problem he now faced, that of his only just now apparent betrothal to her.

"Should we talk about that?" He asked.

"I'm not sure if that would be a good idea,"sShe told him, "we've still got to prepare you for the duel, and not a lot of time to achieve it in."

"I think," Harry replied, "I need to know how you feel before I go fight for you, even if it is entirely probable that I lose you to Malfoy."

She gave him a blistering look and said, "don't you dare say that. You'll win, I know you will, if you really want to know how I feel its this: I knew all along that I was probably betrothed to somebody, most wizards and witches are, especially if they come from ancient magical houses, which my family most certainly qualifies. I just hoped that they wouldn't be too terrible, as they only too often are. When my aunt finally told me it was you just before school started I was hopeful, as I had heard only good things about the boy-who-lived. I'm sure most of them aren't true, but I'm hopeful that we can at least make us work and get along, even if we don't end up loving each other. Besides from what little I know of you, you seem to be way better than Malfoy, him at least I know quite well, and he's an idiot, so you had better win so I don't have to put up with him instead."

His mind reeled with what Susan had told him, as he began to process it, and accept the state of affairs that their relationship would probably be. Even if he were to defeat Malfoy he would still have to worry about being in a forced marriage, two in fact now that he thought about it, with Pansy. Much of his life would already be set, and there was a very high chance of him never really finding love. If he lost, however, he would suddenly be free of that obligation, free to choose whoever he pleased, and the idea of losing on purpose popped into his mind. Yet that idea quickly was tossed aside as he realized he could never allow Susan to be forced into a relationship with Malfoy, he wouldn't have wished that on anyone, even Pansy who he would have thought entirely devoted to Malfoy had he not seen the look she had given him, almost like she recognized him as her way out from cruel punishment.

So lost in his thoughts was he that he only registered that Susan was still there when she touched his arm again.

"Oh sorry," he apologized, "its just a lot to take in.

"That's okay," she replied, seeming to understand, "it was a lot for me to take in as well and I've had a lot more time to get used to it and think about it."

"I just want to say," he said, "I'm not sure how everything will go down, but if I don't lose you to Malfoy that we can at least become friends. We are going to be spending the rest of our lives together probably so we might as well be able to get along."

"I'd like that Harry," she responded, "and we can play get to know you later, but we really need to get you ready for the duel so you can crush Malfoy."

He nodded his head as they went to go find an empty classroom to practice in.

They practiced all the way up until dinner, and while Harry wanted to keep at it and skip dinner, Susan vetoed that, saying that it was more important that he got some strength back, first from resting so he wouldn't be so exhausted for the actual duel, and from what he got from eating, and also because being there for dinner showed that he had more confidence.

However, since he really felt like he had achieved little, having only had enough time to learn how to dodge spells thrown at him, and learned how to use only one spell, the disarming spell, which would have been adequate enough for him to win the duel, had it not been for it being still so weak that it caused his victim, Susan, to only lose her wand when she was gripping it really loosely, and he wasn't even sure if it wasn't because she was allowing him to gain more confidence by dropping it on purpose.

All in all, things did not look good for him, but he chose to listen Susan's advice as he began to gather up his things for dinner.

Yet as they were about to leave, the door to the classroom they had been using opened as a girl with long blonde midback length hair and piercing blue eyes entered.

"Um, Susan, Harry Potter?" She asked, sounding just a bit nervous.

His eyes drifted to her robes as she realized that she was a Slytherin, and that he had seen the girl before in a couple of his classes with the Slytherins.

"What do you need Daphne?" Susan answered in an unreadable voice and tone.

"I need to talk to you about something, and help you if I can," Daphne stated in the same unreadable tone as if this was a game they played, not giving out any unnecessary emotions.

"Aren't you Slytherin?" He couldn't help but ask, "shouldn't you be helping Malfoy?"

"You would have good reason not to trust me, and I wouldn't have come had it not been important, or if it weren't for Pansy's sake," She responded, "the poor girl won't say anything, since she knows it would just make things worse for her if you lose the duel to Malfoy, but she would be helping you herself if she could, and since she can't I'm here to help you in her stead, even though I will totally deny it if you say anything about what we discuss. Suffice it to say, however, that I want you to win, Pansy deserves somebody better than Draco, whether or not you are actually better than him remains to be seen, but I'm willing to give you a chance and the benefit of the doubt."

"I promise to treat Pansy well," Harry uttered, "now if you have something that can help me I would appreciate it."

Daphne gave him a nod of approval before saying, "I just wanted you to know that Draco plans to cheat."

"How wonderful for us," Susan stated sarcastically.

"Isn't that a good thing though?" Harry asked, "if we know how he plans to cheat can't we just reveal how he cheated and get him disqualified?"

"Unfortunately not," Susan reminded him, "cheating in dueling is quite common, there are a number of ways he could cheat without being detected, and there are ways to avoid detection. Besides, someone who comes from an ancient and noble house like Malfoy are allowed to prevent the inspection of their wands, or enchantments placed upon him to protect himself."

"That's completely idiotic though," Harry couldn't help but voice.

"It is," Daphne confirmed, "but fortunately such laws also apply to you. You are also from an ancient and noble house which means you can do the exact same thing he does. I overheard Draco talking to Crabbe and Goyle about his plan to win. Draco plans on using a filibuster wand, or a wand that has pre-done spells in it so he does not have to personally cast them but they'll work anyway when he says the magic words or at least close to them. Usually such wands aren't used too often since they only allow for basic spells to be used, and only 2 or 3 spells can be put on them. They also only have about 10 uses for each spell on them. Still Malfoy probably figures that should be more than enough to finish you off with. Unless I am wrong and you know a lot of spells already and know how to dodge and duel already?

"No, I'm afraid I really only know 2 spells, one of which I still haven't been able to get strong enough to actually use," Harry admitted.

Daphne sighed, "I was afraid of that, well I suppose it can't be helped and it should be irrelevant anyway, since I've been able to procure my own for you to use."

She pulled out a wand and said, "you can just tap your own wand's point against it and it will change to look like yours. Also you should be grateful I manged to get it on such short notice at all."

Harry looked at the wand she had for him hungrily, after all Malfoy planned on cheating, it was only fair that he evened the score right?

Yet as he thought about what his parents would have done, he knew he couldn't do it, even if it cost him the duel.

"I'm grateful to you for your help," He finally told Daphne, "but I simply can't accept it, I plan on winning the duel fair and square."

Daphne gave him a look of incredulity, seeming incapable of understanding why he would ever turn such a thing down.

"Why?"She asked, "you'll lose if you don't use it."

"No I won't," He said as he looked back at Susan, who seemed to be giving her own nod of approval as if proud of him for taking the moral highground, "I'm going to win anyway."

DUELDUELDUELDUELDUEL

Meanwhile now currently at the head table only just starting to eat dinner, was Dumbledore, incredibly pleased with the day's events. Without any effort of his own, the young Malfoy boy had foolishly challenged Harry Potter to a duel, and when he had learned about it from the portraits, he had leapt upon the chance. The fact that he had had to surreptitiously imperious the young Ms. Bones or goad both participants into having the duel go in the right direction as he had planned were only for the greater good. Draco would lose his marriage contract with Parkinson's daughter and Harry would then win her. As Harry's current magical representative in the wizengamot until he came of age he would then have grounds to change Parkinson's allegiance to Lucius and instead back to him. It was perfect so long as Harry won his duel, and he was going to make certain that he did. He had already instructed the house elves to make sure that all the goblets on the Gryffindor house table were laced with magical strengthening potion along with a totally undetectable magical shield that would make many spells that might hit him incredibly weak. With the potion being in every goblet meant that there was no way that Harry would miss, no matter where he sat or drank from, drinking the potion.

As if on cue, he watched as the boy-who-lived entered the great hall, with his betrothed in tow and sat down at the Gryffindor table. He sat still watching him, waiting for him to fill his goblet and take a drink, when he was suddenly interrupted by Hagrid who sat down next to him and started blabbering on about unicorns and how he had just found one dead.

"Professor, that poor unicorn," he began.

Trying to be nice as there was no reason for him to be not against the slaying of a unicorn, but also trying to get him to shut up so he could better focus on Harry and making sure he drank the potions, he turned briefly away from Harry towards Hagrid to address that issue.

At that exact moment, Harry was just about to start putting food on his plate when a girl with blonde pigtails and blue eyes, Hannah, who he recognized as one of Susan's friends and the first person who had been sorted said, "Did you want some food Harry? She asked as she came up behind him with a glass and a plate of food, "I had originally planned on giving it to Susan since I figured she might be getting to dinner late and wasn't sure if the food would disappear before then, but apparently Eloise had the same idea, so I got left with an extra one, I figured you could use some food as well."

Gratefully he took the proffered plate of food, and offered his thanks.

"No problem," She said, before leaning in and whispering, "you had better win, I would hate to see Susan have to marry Malfoy."

"Its okay," he grinned back at her, trying to give the girl and himself more confidence than he still currently had, "I'll win, don't you worry."

Hannah smiled back at him before returning back to the Hufflepuff table.

In a moment, Dumbledore would turn back to watching Harry, and grin as he watched the boy drink from his glass, none the wiser that Harry had escaped his plot.

DUELDUELDUELDUEL

When dinner finally finished, and everything was cleared, Dumbledore had the tables moved out to provide room for the duel and also so that everyone could stand around and watch, while an invisible barrier was erected to allow spectators to watch safely while also maintain a boundary for the duel to take place.

"Students and Faculty," Dumbledore said in his now magically amplified voice, "we have a real treat for you, a duel between two of some of our youngest and newest students, Draco Malfoy, and Harry Potter."

At both of their names a group of students cheered them on, although Harry's was considerably louder.

"Since we have not had an actual real duel in many years," Dumbledore continued, "I will be explaining the rules, the duelists will fight until one of them is no longer able to compete. Spells that are illegal or could cause death are outlawed but everything else goes. The duelists must remain inside of the boundary or be disqualified. Should one of them declare forfeit they lose automatically. Since this is a under age match and not intended to be lethal seconds will be unnecessary. They will also be dueling for keeps, the winner may claim the other's bride to be as his own. Are the duelists ready?"

"Yes," Harry and Malfoy both said as they were let into the ring, or the large area that had been designated as the dueling area.

Harry looked back at Malfoy who had a smirk on his face as he looked back at him, as if confident of victory. He also looked at Susan who was in the very front of the crowd watching and said maliciously, "it will be nice owning you."

"Don't count on it," she shouted back with a look of her own.

"Both contestants will bow to the other and then the duel will begin," Dumbledore continued.

Both him and Malfoy bowed to the other with as little bend as possible before Dumbledore yelled now and the duel began.

As he had already known, Malfoy immediately started casting spells that should have been beyond him.

"Incarcerous," Malfoy yelled as a spell was fired at his wand.

Fortunately for Harry, having been taught briefly how to dodge by Susan, as well as having already spent a great deal of time dodging his cousin Dudley's punches as long as he wasn't being held down, managed to avoid it.

In turn he tried casting a spell of his own, hoping that it would work, "Expelliarmus."

Malfoy in turn proved that he wasn't just an idiot with a fake wand and managed to dodge it. Perhaps he had been trained in dueling after all.

His opponent began firing off spells after that, moving ever so closer with each one, forcing him to dodge each one, some he just barely manged to avoid.

He tried firing off a few disarming spells of his own, with one actually hitting him, but it was apparently too weak to really do anything.

At this Malfoy grinned, "what's that Potter? Not much of a wizard if you can't even do one lousy spell correctly."

This caused him to get angry enough to fire another spell in return this one hitting yet again, and causing Malfoy's wand to shake so much that for a split second, Harry had thought he was going to lose it.

However, Malfoy's grip was just too strong and he found that the spell failed to work.

As a reward for his efforts, Malfoy countered with a bludgeoning curse that hit his arm, causing him to fall backward and send his arm ringing with pain.

He quickly got up, however, and kept fighting, gratefully it had been his non-wand arm that had been injured.

This time he cast the other spell he knew, the flipendo spell, which basically flipped stuff, which hit Malfoy but didn't seem to really do anything.

It was only then that he remembered that flipendo didn't work on people, only certain objects, and since there were no objects in the dueling area, nor did he have the ability to conjure or summon any it was completely useless.

He had been hoping as he counted up the amount of spells that Malfoy was using that he would eventually run out, but apparently he had a deluxe version or something because he still seemed to show no signs of running out.

"Stupefy," Malfoy yelled, which he just managed to duck, even though he felt it blow his hair as it passed.

He assumed that it was a stupefying or a unconsciousness spell that Malfoy was using, and if he got hit with that the duel was over.

With the small amount of faith that he possessed that he had gotten from Susan, and also in himself he realized, however that failure was not on option, he wasn't sure how he was supposed to win the duel, but he knew he would.

However as soon as he thought this the one thing he had been trying to avoid finally happened, he got hit full on. Fortunately it was only a bludgeoning curse which caused him to be blown backward and thrown to the very edge of the dueling area, but he still felt the pain and felt like the wind had been knocked out of him.

Sensing weakness, Malfoy moved in for the intended kill as he tried to pick himself up.

His thinking soon turned to dismay, however, as he realized he had landed wrong and definitely sprained his ankle. He was sure it could be fixed in a jiff with magic by a teacher or the nurse or even an older student, but such repair was beyond him, and he would have great difficulty dodging any more or even walking.

Still as he got up, he heard Susan's voice behind him, "Come on, get up Harry!"

He got back up to his feet only for him to immediately have to fall back down, the only way he was able to avoid Malfoy's next spell which instead sailed over his head

Malfoy seemed to recognize that his opponent's ability to move was now rather limited and grinned in triumph.

Harry himself on the other hand was extremely disappointed, disappointed that he would lose to Malfoy, disappointed that poor Susan would then have to marry him, and disappointed that he hadn't been able to put up a better fight. It was foolish to think he could have won, the only spell he really had a good grasp of doing was completely useless. Or was it?

Suddenly a brilliant idea crossed his mind.

Malfoy opened his mouth and said Stupefy a second after Harry yelled flipendo.

The flipendo spell hit Malfoy's wand and did what it was supposed to do, it flipped his wand in his hand, turning its point away from Harry and instead pointing directly at Malfoy.

The stupefy hit Malfoy, immediately knocking him out and dropping to the floor.

There was a moment's pause as everyone realized just what had happened before there was a roar of applause.

He was suddenly hit by two colliding missiles or people who gathered him up into a hug. The first he realized was Susan, and the other to his surprise was Pansy, who seemed to be slightly embarrassed and surprised herself that she had lost her composure, but as he looked at her, she realized she didn't care as she hugged him anyway.

As he looked over the heads of the two girls, and his other well wishers now surrounding him, he looked over at Dumbledore who had a grin of his own on his face, as he said:

"The winner of the duel is Harry Potter!"

Looking over at Malfoy then who had now been revived, who looked just as confused as everyone else had been when he had first been knocked out, but who's visage was slowly turning to anger.

"How could I lose to that little son of a mudblood," Draco roared, "no Malfoy ever loses duels, and they certainly don't lose their marriage contracts to scum."

As elated as he was at having managed to win, Harry's ankle was still throbbing so he managed to get his fans off of him long enough to hobble over to Madame Pomfrey to have it fixed, followed by Susan and Pansy, neither of which seemed inclined to leave his sight at the moment, but to their credit they at least provided support for him to lean on on his bad ankle.

"When I saw you buckle when you realized your ankle was sprained, I thought for sure you were a goner Mr. Potter," Madame Pomfrey admitted as she treated him, "it appears that you should be fine, however, nothing I can't heal in two seconds.

As if to prove this, she swept her wand over him and the pain in his ankle immediately disappeared along with the swelling. She pronounced him good as new.

"Thanks," he told her gratefully as he tested out his ankle and seeing if there was still any pain if he put pressure on it. There wasn't so he was able to break free of the crowd still milling about wanting to congratulate him, but still keeping track of his two fiancees by holding each of their hands.

They somehow made it back to the abandoned classroom he had been using to practice dueling earlier.

As soon as the door was closed, Susan started: "I have to give you congratulations, but since everyone else has already done so, I think I'll focus more on what you could have improved on. I have to admit I was really worried about you the entire time, especially during the end, it looked like you were just barely managing to avoid his spells and not seeming even capable of going on the offensive. I figured any second you would get hit and the duel would be over. You have no idea how scared I was."

"I was scared too," Pansy admitted, "I thought you were going to lose, especially when I realized Draco was using a filibuster wand."

"You noticed that too?" Susan asked.

"Of course," Pansy replied, "maybe someone who really didn't know Draco might have fallen for it, or someone who didn't know about such wands, but I know Draco well enough to know there is no way he could have performed those spells on his own, he knows a bit more than average because of his father, but those spells were certainly beyond his capabilities. I was also expecting him to cheat anyway, I just wasn't sure how."

"Daphne told us about it beforehand," Susan answered, "she overheard him talking with Crabbe and Goyle about it before the duel. She tried to offer Harry one to counteract it, but of course Harry had to be all noble and turn it down."

She grinned at him as if she was paying him a compliment but Pansy looked shocked.

"I can't believe you turned that down!" Pansy almost screamed, "you almost lost the duel because of that, and its not like Draco wasn't playing fair anyway."

"I couldn't bring myself to stoop to his level," Harry told her.

"If you had lost because of that," Pansy said breathlessly, "I don't know how I would have managed."

Both he and Susan were both shocked to see her actually starting to cry, and Susan decided to brave going and hugging her.

Pansy stiffened, as if unaccustomed to being hugged, even though she had admittedly hugged him after the duel. He had the feeling she had not ever lost her composure and done so before.

However, Pansy did not pull away from the hug and allowed the girl to hug her as she exclaimed through her tears, "I'm just so happy that I don't have to marry Draco."

"So am I," Susan told her, "I was scared too, but I had faith in Harry and he won in the end. It's okay."

Harry however was now feeling like the awkward one as he was unsure how to deal with this show of emotion from Pansy, or the consoling Susan. Was he supposed to join in or just stand there or what?

"Oh come over here Harry," Susan beckoned to him, "we're bonding."

He did so, but nervously, himself also not used to embraces but he did so, and put his arms the best he could around the two girls.

This is going to be interesting, he thought.


	2. What's Next?

Chapter 2

Duel Aftermath

Harry felt like his life had changed dramatically in less than 24 hours as he made his way to breakfast, he had just learned he had one fiancee, won another fiancee in a duel, which he had won with Draco Malfoy, had a fight with Ron, who was being completely stupid, and been hugged by both of his fiancees. He at least had the basics of what had transpired down but what exactly would occur because of those things or what it all meant was still largely unknown to him. What he did know was that he was hungry, and that at least was easily solvable.

He sat down at the end of the table, still being swarmed by people congratulating him about winning, when he suddenly realized that there was no reason that he couldn't go sit by either Susan or Pansy. As far as he knew there was no rule against someone sitting at a house table that was not there own.

Even though he really didn't know either of them very well yet, he supposed he should try to get to know them a bit better and he was beginning to see the formation of at least a friendship with Susan.

Deciding on sitting with Susan first as the Hufflepuffs seemed much more likely of being accepting, especially after he had beat Malfoy in a duel, he got up to leave and said to his housemates, "I think I'm going to go sit by Susan today."

Most of them looked around at each other as if trying to decide if this was really allowed or not, but since nobody seemed to know for certain or not they chose to say nothing.

The only exception, however, was Hermione who pulled on his sleeve as he past by her.

"What are you doing? We're supposed to sit at our assigned tables," she told him.

"Well unless someone can point out a rule that says I can't, I see no reason why not," Harry replied, "you are free to come with me if you'd like."

She slightly cowed by this, but he could see the gears running in her mind, as if she was already planning to dash to the library to check to see if there really was such a rule.

"Besides if there is such a rule I'm sure you'll find it," he said as he walked past her and went sat by Susan at the Hufflepuff table.

She seemed, along with her housemates, surprised to see him there, but she decided to be welcoming and include him in the conversation they were having, "So Harry we were just discussing which is the hardest class?"

"Definitely Potions," he answered, "Professor Snape is killer."

There were courteous nods of approval from the other Hufflepuffs, as if this had already been agreed upon but they were at least kind enough to nod anyway.

The conversation then moved on to of course the easiest subject, to which there were various answers to.

He found Hufflepuffs to be a rather talkative and friendly group for the most part or at least the first years. From what little he knew of the four houses, Hufflepuff was considered to be the loser house by most others, the house people were sent to because they weren't good enough to be anywhere else. Such individuals really needed to get their heads on straight, just meeting Susan would have hopefully cured them of that. He was finding her to be the perfect Hufflepuff, hardworking, loyal, and friendly. If he had to be married to someone, he supposed he could have done much worse.

Since his next class was with the Hufflepuffs, Herbology, he joined them as they made their way over to greenhouse 1 where they would be working.

For partners he immediately teamed up with Susan and Hannah, the latter of which turned out to be rather good at caring for plants.

"My mother owns a greenhouse," she explained.

After herbology, Harry left them to go join his fellow Gryffindors for his other classes.

He was held after class by Professor Flitwick in Charms to discuss the duel and so arrived late for lunch, but gratefully Susan had already put together some food for him.

"You know you don't have to do that for me if you don't want to," Harry told her, not wanting her to feel obligated to treat him so kindly just because they were betrothed.

"Why? Do you not like something I gave you?" Susan asked worriedly.

"No, no its not that," Harry admitted, "I just don't want to be a burden to you or make you feel obligated."

"I don't feel obligated by you, I do it because I want to, I just want to be nice," Susan said, "come on, let's go take our food out to the lake where we can talk a bit."

He did so, grabbing up his food and following her outside.

"So what do you want to talk about?" He asked as soon as they were outside.

"I thought we could play get to know you," she answered, "I don't really know much about you, and you don't really know anything about me, so tell me something about you."

"Well there isn't really much to tell," Harry replied, "other than the whole boy who lived thing which I didn't even know about, my childhood was pretty boring."

"You mean to tell me that the boy who lived has had a boring, totally non-event worthy life? So the stories about you being trained by Merlin, who came back to train you aren't true? Or the time you fought off a giant using only your thumb?"

He laughed. "Is that really what they are claiming I did?"

"People didn't really know anything about you, so I'm sure a few people took the liberty of making stuff up," she responded.

"You would think they would make up stuff more believable," he said.

"Well then tell me about the real you," She begged.

"I was raised by my aunt and uncle," Harry finally began, "they hated magic and they always held that both me and my parents were wizards against me but I never knew exactly why until Hagrid finally came and told me that I was wizard."

"So you never knew?" Susan asked flabbergasted.

"No," he stated, "so all of those stories about me fighting giants or being taught by Merlin are completely false. I barely know anything, you saw me in that duel, I barely managed to pull it off."

"What everyone else thinks and is talking about is that you were just toying with Malfoy, like he wasn't even worth using spells on, and when you did, it was just to prove that you could beat him at any time, you hit him several times but the spells didn't really work. Then you had to go and beat him with the most basic and simple spell of all, one that no one would think to actually use in combat."

"What do you think?" He asked her.

"I think that's pretty obvious Harry," Susan admitted, "I was the one who trained you for the duel in the first place remember. I, however, saw you for what you really are: someone just as human as the rest of us, trying to learn basic spells like the rest of us. When I first learned I would be marrying Harry Potter, I was thinking at first about marrying the Harry Potter I had read about in all of those stories, and I worried how I would ever live up to that, you would be so much better than I was, and I would have nothing to really offer you. To be honest I'm relieved to find that you are human, and I really would like to get to know the real Harry Potter and see if I like him or not."

He wasn't sure exactly how to reply to that, for the most part he had been subjected to either outright derision in the muggle world, and undue praise and aduration for the most part in the magical. The fact that Susan was now starting to judge him based on exactly who he was was comforting to him.

"Thank you," he finally said gratefully, "I hope to view you and judge you in the same regard. "

"Then tell me something else about you," Susan asked.

"Why don't you tell me something about you first?" Harry countered, "I'm trying to get to know you as well remember?"

"Very well," Susan stated, "I suppose I have a few things in common with you actually, both my parents were also murdered by Voldemort, along with most of the rest of my family. He seemed to view us as a threat to his power, both because we were direct descendants of Helga Hufflepuff, and also because of our power and wealth which we were using to help fund the war against him."

"You're a descendant to one of the founders?" Harry asked.

"Don't be too shocked," Susan replied, "there are many people with the blood of the founders running through their veins. I think the Potters were actually descendants of Gryffindor. The whole idea of any of us being somehow more important or powerful is of course ridiculous, just propaganda purebloods like to use. Voldemort for example appears to have thought along the same lines because many of the descendants of the founders were targeted and killed off. Its one of the reasons why my family was targeted, probably yours as well."

"I'm sorry," was all he could manage to say.

"It's not your fault," Susan amended, "I just wish stupid Voldemort had never existed, he caused way too many problems. I was raised by my aunt, and she's been the best parent someone could hope for, but I still wish things could have been different."

"I feel the same way," Harry said, "everyone loves me because I defeated Voldemort, and its not like I would like to see him still be around but I still would like to have my parents back."

"It must be so terrible," Susan replied, "to be famous for something that has cost you so much."

It was nice to finally meet someone who really seemed to get him, Harry thought, of course that was exactly how he felt.

"What was it like being raised by your aunt then? You said that it was about as good as you could hope for." Harry asked.

"It was," Susan admitted, "my aunt's husband was also killed during the war, but she raised me the best she could even though she's had a lot of other things to do, she had to take over as head of the family and be a part of the wizengamot, and then also do her job as the Head of Magical Law Enforcement. In spite of that, however, she's always somehow found time for me. When I was younger she used to take me flying and then when I got older she got me my own broom. Yet she also has been the kind of parent that makes sure that their kids succeed, she taught me the basics of dueling which you know, and other things that I could use to protect myself with. I think its been to help protect me, and I can't blame her after what happened to the rest of our family."

Harry nodded, that was a good idea, he wished that he had received similar training or experiences. Instead the only thing he had learned from the Dursleys was how to avoid getting hit or at least protect his most vital parts, and run away.

"Now its your turn," Susan reminded him.

He had since been avoiding really discussing what his miserable childhood had been like, he did not want her to worry unnecessarily.

Still he knew he should say something so he tried to deflect the question again.

"Yep, the stories are actually all true," he told her, "I was raised by Merlin, but Merlin asked me not to say anything to you common folk, can't have you learning about our super secret magical order."

She laughed, but she seemed to be also aware that he was deflecting.

"You still haven't answered the question, I'm not going to leave you alone until you do," she said.

He tried shifting around some of his memories in his mind to see if he could come up with a good one to share with her, but finally he thought of one.

"Remember that I told you my aunt and uncle decided not to tell me about me being a wizard?" He asked, "well apparently Dumbledore or whoever really wanted me to get my Hogwarts letter because they just kept sending them to me, at first it was just one letter, than it was 3, then a dozen, finally it ended with the living room being absolutely filled with letters. I imagine Dumbledore sent every school owl he had and some probably took more than one."

"What did your relatives do?" asked Susan.

"They finally decided to leave the house until the letters stopped coming," he told her, "we ended up going to this little cottage on an island out in the middle of nowhere in the hopes of escaping, that's when Hagrid showed up anyway and told me that I was a wizard."

She shook her head, as if trying to imagine what that experience might have been like.

"All right, Mr. Potter," Susan said, "I'll accept that for now, but I know that you are still holding out on me."

He chose at that moment to look down at the remains of his lunch.

"What do you say we invite Pansy and maybe some other Slytherins if they would like to join us at the Hufflepuff table for dinner?" Susan asked, seeming to have noticed his nervousness and change the subject.

"Sure," he replied, grateful for her not trying to elicit anymore information out of him at least for the moment.

"There are probably a few things you should know about her by the way," Susan said, "I didn't want to say anything before the duel, or when she was around afterwards, but she's had a hard life as far as I can tell. I also think she is extremely grateful that you got her away from Malfoy, I don't think she really cared for him much even if she was always pretending otherwise. I think it would be nice to treat her particularly kindly and gentle."

"I'll try," Harry stated simply.

"All right well its probably time for us to get heading back," Susan said as she guided him back to the castle.

When he met up for defense against the dark arts class, Hermione flagged him down.

"I've been looking over the school's bylaws, and it turns out you were right about sitting at your own table or not," Hermione informed him, "according section 3, paragraph 5 of The Hogwarts Code of Conduct and Other Applicable Rules, the rule only applies for beginning of year and end of year feasts for the sorting, and the awarding of the house cup."

"Thank you Hermione for looking that up," he admitted to her, "something tells me such information could be useful."

She looked at him as if trying to gage if he was somehow being insincere or sarcastic, but he managed to escape scrutiny for the simple fact that he was being entirely honest.

"You are also free to come join us should you wish," he told her.

She nodded, but chose not to answer. He had the feeling that making friends was entirely new and scary territory for her, but he had at least been gracious and invited her none the less.

It turned out that he would end up needing her information for dinner, when he had to use it to get Pansy to join them at the Hufflepuff table, who seemed a little nervous about doing so, but after informing her that it was not a violation of school rules and the personal guarantee by Susan that she would be accepted by the other Hufflepuffs she had agreed.

However the next need for the use of said information came while they were already sitting there, with himself flanked on either side by Susan and Pansy and Professor Snape came by.

"I do believe you should be at your own table Mr. Potter," Snape informed him with a sneer.

"I know that I am not breaking any school rules Professor," Harry calmly told him, "according to the Hogwarts Code of Conduct, section 3, paragraph 5 I or any other student has every right to sit at another house table. He had been almost expecting Snape to protest and so was thankfully ready for him, thanks to Hermione.

To this answer, Snape momentarily paused but his apparent hatred of him seemed to win out as he then said, "I don't care if the school rulebook says that you are allowed to have pet dragons in the school, no such activities that I deem harmful are allowed."

"Why would sitting at another table be deemed harmful?" Hannah had the courage to ask.

"How dare you question my ability to judge," Snape sneered loudly, "houses should never intermix as it only fosters anger and animosity towards each other when they get too close. I am willing to forgive you this time for still being so young and naïve, but you will come to learn this is the case. Now I would suggest you silly, fat little girl had better spend more time thinking than eating."

Hannah, who was admittedly a bit overweight looked ready to cry, but Snape was not done yet.

"I shall just have to take 10 points from Gryffindor for failing to sit at your assigned table Mr. Potter," Snape said.

"Then you shall have to also take 10 points from Slytherin as well," Pansy said, "as I am also not sitting at my assigned table.

At this Snape looked like he was facing a conundrum or a rock and a hard place, Harry doubted if he had ever taken a single point from Slytherin and he looked extremely unhappy about having to do so.

Finally after realizing he was caught, he said in as low a voice as he possibly could and still be heard: "10 points from Slytherin then, but Ms. Parkinson I would caution you against hanging out with this riffraff. I also expect you both to be sitting at your assigned tables the next time I turn around."

He strode from where they were to the teacher's table while they all began to protest.

Before they could do anything else however Professor Flitwick appeared behind them.

"Did my ears deceive me or did someone manage to get Professor Snape to take points from his own house?" He asked in his squeaky voice.

"Professor Snape tried to take points from Harry when he noticed he was sitting at the wrong table even when we informed him it was not against the school rules to do so," Susan explained, "but then after insulting us all, he chose to try and take points anyway. Then Pansy reminded him that she was sitting at the wrong table as well and then he had to take points away."

"Good work," Professor Flitwick praised them, "I bet Minerva 10 galleons that Snape would finally take points away from his own house. Also good work on trying to have more inter-house unity, take 15 points each to gryffindor, slytherin, and hufflepuff. I wish more ravenclaws were more like you. Don't worry about Snape, he won't be bothering you again, I've still got dirt on him, he won't be wanting anyone knowing about what he did at last year's christmas party."

Eager as they were about finding out just what Snape had done, they decided that it was better that Flitwick still had something on him.

"We'll be working on getting ravenclaws involved too," Susan said.

"Excellent!" raved Flitwick, "and Harry I've been thinking about the conversation we had after class, and I was wondering if you would like me to teach you how to duel."

To Harry this seemed like a very magnanimous gesture, as he knew that Flitwick had been a dueling champion back in the day, and that he would be willing to give him private lessons was rather special.

"I would love that professor," Harry replied, "if its not too much trouble."

"No trouble at all," Flitwick informed him cheerily, "you seem to have the reaction speed and dodging part down, you just need to learn some spells and technique, if it is all right with you, come meet me in my office right after dinner and we'll get started."

Harry nodded his assent and Flitwick went to go join the teacher's table.

They had the satisfaction of seeing him afar whisper to first Snape, and then McGonagall, as she frowned and pulled out something from her pocket and handed it to Flitwick. They assumed it was a bag of gold.

Meanwhile Draco Malfoy was currently on his way down to the Slytherin common room, after receiving a letter from his father. It read simply:

Slytherin common room, now.

Draco had a pretty good idea just what it was about, and he was certainly not looking forward to it. It was because of the results of the duel that he had lost to Potter. His father certainly was not going to be happy about it, not one bit. The fact that his father was also one of the school governors and could come visit him whenever he wanted made things even worse, most students would just get a howler sent to them and then they would be done with it, instead he had to endure his father's tirades in person.

He spoke the password and entered the Slytherin common room, and immediately spotted his father standing there.

There were no other occupants in the room as everyone else was still away eating dinner.

When his father saw him he looked back at him with a very large scowl on his face. This did not bode well, not one bit. If his father had started shouting at him it might have been better, but this meant he was really just containing his anger, and Draco had learned long ago that this meant he had a major punishment in mind.

"Hello Father," Draco said demurly, bowing respectfully at him.

"Draco it appears we have much to discuss about a certain duel you so foolishly entered into," his father began, his voice kept subdued but sounding like he could lash out at any moment, "I would have never believed that a Malfoy would have been so foolhardy as to make such a challenge like that."

"It was never supposed to go that far," Draco tried to explain, "I only challenged him at first so Potter would be out after hours for our duel and then I could rat him out so he could get caught. Then Dumbledore had to stick his nose into it and offer to publicize the duel to the whole school. I couldn't back down from that, it would have made me look weak and cowardly."

"You were foolish to make such a challenge anyway," his father concluded, "but of course you needed to accept the challenge, Malfoys cannot be perceived as cowards. The difference is that you were supposed to actually win the duel, by any means necessary."

"I had him the entire duel," Draco answered, "Potter could only do like one spell, he's an idiot father, and I should have won, I used a filibuster wand too."

"You mean to say that you used a filibuster wand, the boy you were fighting only knew one spell, and you still lost!" his father raged, no longer able to contain his anger.

"Yes father," Malfoy said, "but he's the boy-who-lived, surely..."

"That is no excuse," his father replied, "do you know what you might have just cost me? I need the support of Pansy's father, and the agreement I had with him was contingent on his daughter marrying you. I had him and the rest of the names I needed to gain a majority in the wizengamot and then you had to go and throw it all away. Now they will hesitate since this will also suggest that my own son and heir can't manage to hold his own. The entire Malfoy name has been shamed!"

Draco just stood there, not trusting himself to speak further.

"You will get your revenge on Potter and win back Parkinson's daughter," his father assured him, "in order for the Malfoys to gain the power that we've been trying to get we have to salvage this, by any means necessary. Otherwise I shall have no choice but to disinherit you so I can save face, do I make myself clear?"

Draco nodded, shocked by such a threat. His father had never threatened to do that before to him, and that he would do so, no matter how serious he might have been, was evidence of just how angry he was at him."

"What would you propose I do?" Draco asked.

"The only way it can be rectified," his father drawled, "by having Potter lose in a duel."

"I don't have another marriage contract that I can gamble," Draco reminded him.

"Then get another student to do it," his father replied, "any student should be able to make such a challenge and have it be valid as long as they are in his year and have a marriage contract. I'll see to it that Potter will be forced to accept. Make sure that they are loyal to you so that when they beat him, you can gamble some galleons or something for Parkinson and they will accept. They can then lose on purpose to you and you'll have gained back face and got Parkinson back."

"Yes father," Draco said sullenly.

"I expect you to have this taken care of swiftly. If I have to get involved myself it will not bode well for you," his father said as he swept from the room, leaving Draco alone.

"Potter," was all he said in the time before students started coming back from lunch as he tried to figure out who to send to defeat him with.

DUELDUELDUEL

Meanwhile Harry was just finishing dinner when Pansy whispered into his ear, "can I talk to you alone?"

"Sure," he said as he got up from the table to follow her.

After finding an empty classroom, and after he had shut the door behind him, she started:

"I want to thank you Harry, for you know, getting me away from Draco."

"No problem," he told her, "happy to help."

"I know you weren't planning on it or anything," she said, "but I'm still really grateful. You have no idea what..."

She stopped then, and it looked like she was about to cry.

"I'm sorry, I promise I'm not usually very emotional," she continued as she wiped a tear away from her eyes, "its just that well let's just say it was really hard to go through life knowing you were betrothed to someone like him, I figured that there was no way out. I don't know you and you don't know me, but I can already tell that you aren't anything like him, or indeed any wizard I've ever met."

"Thanks," he stated simply, unsure exactly how to reply, but feeling like he should come up with something more as he then said, "This is new territory for me, being betrothed to you and Susan is a lot to take in, along with the fact that the magical world, or even having friends are new experiences for me, I can't promise that I'll be perfect."

"I don't expect you to be perfect, and you're doing fine," Pansy consoled him.

"Thanks," he said again and then, "I hope that we can at least become friends."

"I'd like that," Pansy replied, smiling."

"You want to go work on our potions homework together," he volunteered.

"Sure," she said as she followed him out of the classroom to the library.


	3. Flying into Danger

Chapter 3

Flying into danger

Albus Dumbledore was in a good mood as he sat in his office, things were going even better than he had hoped. First of all Harry had managed to win his duel with young Draco and so gain the ever so important marriage contract with Ms. Parkinson despite the fact that he had somehow not taken the potion that he had prepared for him.

However it had still worked out and he had already contacted Lord Parkinson and got him to agree to a meeting with him as Harry's magical guardian to discuss the details of said contract. With Harry coming from such a wealthy and powerful family to begin with, along with his fame as the boy-who-lived he saw no reason why he shouldn't be able to make one of the conditions be that he lend support to his side on the wizengamot.

Perhaps he could then also try to use the situation to get the other neutrals to sway to his side as well. His only worry was that he knew that this wasn't over, Lucius would not admit defeat so easily, and he would most assuredly try to win the contract back by some means.

Yet as he still plotted he was alerted to the arrival of one of the portraits, this one a painting of an almost entirely invisible headboy , who he knew to normally be in the slytherin common room. The fact that he was invisible, which was extremely difficult to make for a portrait, was invaluable as it allowed him to spy on the slytherins and find out what they were up to. They would have never allowed said portrait to exist there had they realized that someone was actually there watching them.

"Professor Dumbledore, I do believe that I have some information for you," the invisible man began.

"What is it Carloman?" Dumbledore asked, "I trust that it isn't another person trying to smuggle firewhiskey into the school is it?"

"No Professor," Carloman said, "I'm perfectly aware by now that you don't really care about that. Actually I wanted to talk to you about a conversation I overheard with Draco Malfoy and his father. Apparently Lucius decided to visit the school without notifying you of it so he could visit his son."

"I was expecting such a visit, Lucius is bound not to be pleased with his son," Dumbledore admitted.

"He wasn't," agreed Carloman, "but what I thought you should know is that he plans on winning the Parkinson girl back."

"I was expecting such a response," Dumbledore replied, "I've already gotten Flitwick to agree to teach Harry how to duel for that very reason. I would imagine that we have several months at least before we need worry about that before Mr. Malfoy can manage to find a suitable candidate and create a marriage contract with them in which to challenge Harry with, and hopefully Harry will have improved enough by then that taking Draco out a second time should be simple enough as long as I get Flitwick to push him hard enough. After he wins that I wouldn't be surprised if he gives up."

Dumbledore did not really need to explain all of his plans to a simple portrait, but since he had no one else to discuss it with and none of the portraits had the ability to say anything against the current headmaster's wishes he felt it was safe to.

"That is apparently not what Lord Malfoy has in mind, he plans to get someone else to fight Harry and beat him and then beat that person in a duel," Carloman said.

"Interesting," Dumbledore responded as he sat back in his chair as he figured out how to use this new piece of information.

"I could try and keep tabs on him to see who he chooses," Carloman volunteered.

"Yes please do that," Dumbledore said finally, "but I suppose this changes nothing, except that I may have to get Flitwick to train Harry even more than I had originally planned. I want there to be no chance of losing. Find out what you can and alert the other portraits to have an ear out as well to see if we can find out just who Draco ends up using."

"Very well Professor," Carloman agreed, "I would bow but you wouldn't be able to tell."

"Then go," Dumbledore commanded as he continued to make plans.

DUELDUELDUELD

Harry was a bit nervous as he made his way to his first dueling lesson with Flitwick, but he supposed the diminutive professor wouldn't have him do anything too bad, he was quite possibly the nicest teacher in Hogwarts.

Yet the normally cheery professor's expression was somehow replaced with a look of grim determination.

"Hello Harry," Flitwick said as he beckoned for him to follow him into his office.

As he entered Harry was expecting to see a small office perhaps with a desk, a chair and perhaps a few photos, instead what he saw was a huge empty room and a platform that stood a foot high and dominated much of the room.

At his look of awe, Flitwick explained, "I chose this office for a reason, I used to teach dueling as well a long while back before it was stricken from the curriculum, the headmaster before Dumbledore couldn't see much of a use for it. I had hoped that it would be reinstated but budget cuts so far hasn't allowed for it. I still got to keep the room, however that I used to teach my students in, but of course it hasn't been used in a very long time. It shall feel good to see it used again."

"Why me though Professor?" Harry couldn't help but ask, "I certainly didn't do a very good job during the duel, I barely managed."

"That was because you didn't yet know any spells Mr. Potter," Flitwick reminded him, "your instincts and natural talent are as keen as I've ever seen. With a bit training I believe that you could become a great duelist, and Dumbledore agrees, he was the one in fact who suggested that I teach you. I used to train some of the greatest duelists, some that even became famous for it. Its been one of my greatest desires of mine to do so again. We shall just have to see if you are really up to it."

"What exactly am I going to be learning Professor?" Harry asked.

"Everything Mr. Potter," Flitwick said, "as much as you can possibly stand, for I take dueling very seriously, I shall work you as hard as I think you capable of doing, but I shall stop if you ask me to stop."

Harry decided right then and there that he would never do so.

"I'd like to start you off by having you practice the disarming spell," Flitwick began, "a quick duelist can do a lot with only that one spell in his arsenal. Now if you would please get up onto the platform you can practice on that training dummy."

Harry did as requested and noticed the wooden dummy already standing and set up with a wand in hand.

"Expelliarmus," he cried as he pointed his wand at it.

The wand shuddered a bit, but otherwise remained there.

"Expelliarmus," he yelled again, and this time the wand went flying. Before the wand could really go anywhere, however, Flitwick summoned it back with his own wand.

"The disarming spell can be countered or summoned back to you quite easily if you either take the time to set up a spell that prevents it working at the beginning of the duel, or you have a semi-permanent charm placed on your wand to call it back to you in case it is lost, but it is still a good spell to know, many great wizards have been foiled by failing to take such precautions," Flitwick explained, "now do so again."

Only after he had successfully disarmed the training dummy 10 more times was Flitwick satisfied.

"Now let's see you do it on a real person," Flitwick said, "try and disarm me."

"Expelliarmus," he shouted as he pointed his wand at the professor.

Flitwick struggled to hold onto it, but evidently his spell was just strong enough and it went flying out of his hands.

"Very good Harry," praised Flitwick, "again."

He did so, managing to get Flitwick's wand to go flying out of his hand except for the last one.

"I believe its because you are not used to performing too much magic yet, give it a few weeks and you should be able to perform magic way more," Flitwick explained, "which is why I'll give it a rest for now, right now let's test out your reflexes, I saw how good they were against Mr. Malfoy but I'd like to see how they do against me. If you could please go to the other side of the platform I'll begin firing spells at you, they won't do anything to you if you get hit, except record the amount of times you do get hit in my wand."

"Begin," Flitwick said as he immediately unleashed a tirade of spells at him. He only just barely managed to dodge the first one, and the second one whizzed past his left ear.

As he continued to do so, he soon found that facing a competent duelist like Flitwick was nothing compared to what he had to from Draco. Draco was as slow as a snail and aim as poor as a blind man in comparison.

He found himself getting hit more than a few times, and he was starting to get discouraged, as he wanted to do Flitwick proud. For how long he must have been at it he wasn't sure but he was starting to grow tired. However, with the same resolve he had made at the beginning to never stop kept him fueled.

Finally when he felt like the only like the only way he could dodge another spell was if he were to collapse onto the ground and not give up, Flitwick called it quits."

"Well done Harry," Flitwick praised.

"Its okay you don't have to be nice Professor," Harry answered, "that was rather pathetic, I promise I'll do better next time."

"If you had done any better," Flitwick commented, "I would have been sure you were lying to me about the experience you said you had, I've never seen a student do that well before for a first time. You got hit 47 times."

"Are you sure that's good professor?" Harry asked him.

"It could simply be that I am out of practice but I don't think that's it, personally what I think is that I shall be very grateful I decided to teach you how to duel."

"Thank you Professor," Harry replied respectfully.

"I do believe you are worn out though," Flitwick commented, "I wanted to see how far you could go, and how far you would let me go, two of the marks of a great duelist are endurance and never giving up even when your limits are tested. Now go on and get out of here, I've kept you long enough, just meet me back here the day after tomorrow, and do the homework I assign you, start running 4 laps around the quidditch pitch in the morning. Harry groaned inwardly that was like 2 miles.

Still he dragged himself out of Flitwick's office and went to go find out if Pansy, Susan, and Hannah had waited for him to finish the homework.

When he finally found them in the library, he tried to sit down between Pansy and Susan.

"Harry," Susan commented, "you're all sweaty."

"Sorry," he apologized, "Flitwick gave me quite the workout."

"The good thing is you are just in time," Hannah informed him, "we were just getting started on our potions' essays.

"Wonderful," Harry said sarcastically as he pulled out his almost entirely unwritten essay.

It took some effort, well actually a lot of effort but finally they managed to finish it, along with the rest of their homework.

Gratefully they all went to bed.

DUELDUELDUELD

At the same time the weary students were turning in for the night, Draco had managed to get his target alone with him in their dormitory.

"Nott," Draco said with false jovialness, "how's it going?"

"What is it Draco?" Nott answered, not fooled for a second.

"You mean I can't just simply ask how one of my good friends is doing?" Draco asked.

"I know you too well for that Draco," Nott told him, "you never ask how anyone is doing, and you never act that happy either so it must mean you want something from me, just tell what is it?"

Immediately Draco decided to drop the act as it clearly wasn't working.

"I need you to do me a favor, just a small thing really, I want you to challenge Harry Potter to a duel."

"Is that all?" Nott scoffed, "sounds me to like you must be pretty desperate to come to me to fix something like that, but I suppose you just need me to get you out of the mess that you created."

Draco frowned, such insubordination and cheeky remarks were something he was quite unused to from his peers, including Nott, most respected or even downright worshipped him as the Malfoy heir. Apparently his standing had fallen much more than he had thought because he had lost the duel. This would require better tactics if he was to get Nott's help.

"Well I don't suppose you could have helped me anyway," Draco said haughtily, "I suppose I'll just have to get someone better to do it, perhaps Crabbe or Goyle could do it."

Crabbe and Goyle couldnn't fight their way out of a paper bag with magic," Nott replied, "I never said I couldn't do it, just that I wouldn't want to, I have no reason to take any risks, I have a marriage contract with Su Li and I see no reason to jeopardize that."

"Like I said," Draco responded, "you're just scared, scared that Potter will beat you."

"He beat you didn't he?" Nott reminded him, "and you're coming to me to fix your problem, I'm perfectly confident of my dueling abilities, and you should be too, I happen to have been trained how to duel by my uncle, who was a master duelist himself. If you really want me to beat Potter and get your girl Parkinson back I'll expect some form of compensation."

Once again Draco frowned, clearly Nott had the advantage over him and he obviously knew it. This would force him to remind him just who was in charge.

"As I remember it," Draco drawled, "I do believe my family happens to own the acromantula colony that you've been using to get your silk from to make clothes. It would be a shame if we decided to let someone else use it instead. Or what about how you are currently selling illegal flying carpets on the black magic market? It would be a shame if the ministry were to find out about that little endeavor wouldn't it?"

Nott blanched, but to his credit he decided to fight back before he would admit defeat, "I'm sure my father has dirt on yours that we could use to get back at you just as easily."

"You forget that my father has all of those contraband officials in his pocket," Draco reminded him, "and our tracks are covered a lot better than yours, let's face it you couldn't pin anything on us. Of course if you just agreed to duel Potter nothing need happen unnecessarily."

Nott looked at him, as if trying to figure out a comeback, but once he realized he really did have nothing, he agreed.

"All right Draco you win, I'll take down Potter for you, just give me a few months to practice a bit."

"You have until Halloween at the very latest," Draco told him, "I want this taken care of as soon as possible."

"I'm going to need all that time if you want me to guaranteed success," Nott replied, "and I'm going to need a troll."

"You need a what?" Draco asked incredulously.

"You heard me right," Nott grinned, enjoying his stunned reaction, "if you want Potter to lose, get me a troll."

"What could you possibly need a troll for?" Draco asked.

Nott grinned and said, "you'll find out."

DUELDUELDUELD

Over the course of that two weeks Harry was completely oblivious of his impending fight with Theodore Nott, and so had absolutely no reason to think that things weren't already going swimmingly.

His friendship with Pansy and Susan had quickly spread to include both Daphne and Hannah, their two best friends respectfully, and the last few days Hermione had started joining them at the Hufflepuff table as well. They had tried to get a ravenclaw to join them, but so far their were no takers. He suspected that it was partly because of Snape's idle threats in class that he would take points away from any student sitting at their unassigned table. Apparently Flitwick's blackmail wasn't good enough because he came and took points away from them every meal, and then Flitwick would put them back later. He suspected that Flitwick was actually allowing it to happen, just to see how long it took Snape to realize that no points were actually being taken.

As far as dueling was concerned Flitwick kept assuring him that he was doing fantastically, one of the best he had ever seen, as they continued their every other day classes. He was even starting to suggest that he might want to fight in the international dueling competition that took place every summer. It was really hard work, but he found he enjoyed it even if Flitwick kept hitting him far too many times for comfort.

Even his other classes were going well, as he found that with enough effort and study he could perform adequately. He was even learning spells as fast and as easily as Hermione, even if his written work wasn't as good, as he saw no reason to do that much work as she did unnecessarily.

Today however was a day he had been particularly looking forward to, as they would be starting their flying lessons.

As he went out with his fellow Gryffindors and the Slytherins, each clutching their own school broom that they would be using, he wondered just how difficult flying would actually be.

"Welcome to your first flying lesson," Madam Hooch began, "first put your brooms on the ground, and then put your hand over it and say up."

"Up," came a chorus of students.

As Harry called up his broom, to his amazement his broom zoomed directly into his hand. He began to look around as his fellow students appeared to have more difficulty.

No one else had managed to get the broom to fly up into their hand on the first try, so they were continued to try, with varying success. Some of the brooms seemed started to come up about halfway but then crash back down, some would roll over, but then eventually after a few tries they started to get it. Susan was the next person to do it, which wasn't so surprising as he knew that she had practiced flying a bit already. The next was Malfoy, who he knew had bragged a great deal about his flying prowess, telling a crazy story about out flying a muggle helicopter.

Finally they were left with only two holdouts, although Harry suspected that some of the students had just simply bent down and grabbed their brooms with their hand.

Only Neville and Ron were still trying, and Neville's broom seemed to know just how much the poor boy really did not seem to want to fly since it did little more than roll over in the grass.

Ron's broom on the other hand just kept having its end come up and smack him in the nose every time he said up.

Harry tried not to laugh but following his falling out with Ron, who still kept going on about that boy-who-lived garbage, he couldn't help but now dislike him. He refused to try and make up with him until he figured things out, also all the boy wanted to do was practice with Dean and Seamus who could make the loudest belch and fart, and try to help Seamus turn water into rum. Both boys seemed destined to become alcoholics at a young age if they kept it up, if they could somehow manage to perform the spell correctly that is.

Finally Ron and Neville both just grabbed their brooms with their hand as well, even if Ron's nose was starting to bleed slightly which had to be fixed by Madame Hooch, who appeared to have at least a basic knowledge of healing. Evidently she had dealt with nose bleeds before.

"Next," Madame Hooch informed them, "you will mount your brooms and then once I count to three and upon my whistle you will kick off from the ground with your broom and then come back down again, one, two..."

It was at that moment that Neville seemed unable to wait any longer or perhaps he was just so nervous he heard the count wrong as he kicked off with his broom and began flying all over the quidditch pitch.

It was quite obvious he had no control as he continued to go all over the place and scream in terror. Madame Hooch got on her own broom to try and intercept the hapless boy.

Unfortunately as she drew closer to Neville, who was already by now quite high up, his broom made an about face as he crashed directly into her.

Madame Hooch might have been able to fend off this direct hit at her had it not been for the fact that they were very near the castle, which caused Madame Hooch to crash directly into one of the castle wall's, knocking her out.

Having no idea what he was doing but knowing that he needed to do something, Harry got onto his broom and flew as fast as he could to intercept the falling Madame Hooch.

He just barely managed to pull it off, grabbing her just before she hit the ground, holding onto her with all of his might, and then set her gently onto the ground before realizing that he needed to deal with Neville still, who was now trying desperately to hold onto his broom as it went into a free fall.

With only seconds before he fell onto a weather vane with a sharp arrow on top of it pointing up, which would probably skewer him, Harry managed to grab Neville just as he lost his grip onto his broom, and pull him down to the ground, no easy task since Neville was still squirming around, still absolutely terrified.

Yet he managed to get him down to the ground, with a bunch of cheering students.

However, he was more focused on whether or not Neville and Madame Hooch were alright as he looked them over, Neville having fainted as soon as he reached the ground. After looking him over for a second and seeing no sign of any injuries, he turned to Madame Hooch, who had probably sustained more damage.

She looked pretty scraped up as far as he could tell, but for other injuries he wouldn't know until she regained consciousness.

At that moment the group of students currently crowded around him suddenly went silent and as he looked throught the crowd he realized the reason why, Professor McGonagall was currently making her way across the lawn towards them.

"What exactly happened here?" she demanded with a scowl upon her face.

"Neville was trying to fly and lost control of his broom," Hermione explained, "then when Madame Hooch tried to fly over to him and stop him, he ended up ramming into her and she fell against the wall. Then Harry here flew over and saved them both before they could fall."

"It appears they are alright as far as I can tell Professor," Harry explained to her as she would be wanting to know how both of the victims were doing, "Neville should be unharmed except a little traumatized, although Madame Hooch's face is scraped up a bit on her left side. I would need to have her regain consciousness or have Madame Pomfrey look her over for a more thorough job."

McGonagall still had her usual grim look on her face as she bent down to check them both over as well, but nodded, "they'll both need to be transported to the hospital wing, I don't suppose any of you know how to use Wingardium Leviosa yet?"

"We haven't learned that yet Professor," Hermione said.

"I can do that Professor," Harry volunteered, having just learned the Wingardium Leviosa spell early in an attempt to catch Flitwick off guard during one of their duels, it hadn't worked, but it had still surprised Flitwick who hadn't been expecting him to have learned that particular spell already.

"Good," McGonagall said as she pointed her wand at Madame Hooch's body while it began to rise.

He hastened to do the same with Neville as he got his body floating a couple of feet above the ground.

"Class is dismissed," McGonagall told the other students, who immediately became disappointed that they would not get a chance to practice flying that day.

As he walked alongside his head of house, both Neville and Madame Hooch floating along a few feet past them, McGonagall took the time to talk to him.

"That was a very gutsy and dangerous thing you did," she reminded him.

"I had to do something," he replied, "I couldn't let either of them get hurt."

"Was this your first time flying Mr. Potter?" McGonagall asked.

"Yes," he told her.

"That was quite an impressive bit of flying, even with someone with years of experience, you must have a lot of raw talent to be able to do what you just did, I heard Mr. Longbottom's screams from my window and watched the whole thing, I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes," McGonagall praised him.

"I really had no idea what I was doing it just happened," Harry explained.

"You saved a teacher and a student from certain harm," McGonagall answered, "how about you take 20 points from your efforts.

"I could never accept them," Harry admitted, "I did what anyone would have if they had been able. I couldn't profit from something like that."

"Then how about I offer something else then," McGonagall suggested, "we currently have a need for a seeker on the Gryffindor Quidditch Team, we could really use you."

Harry thought about it for a second as he supposed it would be rather fun, but then he thought of dueling and his other schoolwork, he simply didn't have the time for something else.

"Respectfully Professor I must decline," Harry said solemnly, "I'm afraid I would be just too busy, as my schoolwork takes precedent."

McGonagall nodded, looking sad that he had turned her down, but seeming to understand.

"I admit I'm disappointed as I really think you could be a great asset to the team but I suppose I must accept that answer, I would hate for your schoolwork to suffer, which at least in my class has been more than adequate."

They continued in silence the last hundred yards to the hospital wing, before Madame Pomfrey could have a look at them.

As she ran a diagnostics spell she found Neville to be largely unharmed, but Madame Hooch was found to have a broken wrist which had probably happened when she had tried to push her hand against the wall in order to stop herself from hitting it. However she was immediately able to fix it, along with her slightly damaged face, and bring her back to consciousness, even though she was still a little dazed. Madame Pomfrey assured them she would be fine.

When Harry left as soon as he knew they would be okay to go find his classmates, McGonagall said to herself, "20 points to gryffindor for saving a teacher and a student, and another 5 points for not accepting a reward when offered Mr. Potter."

DUELDUELDUELD

Meanwhile back in the Slytherin common room, Malfoy was extremely unhappy as he had had to witness Potter be the hero yet again and save the day. Even his former strumpet Parkinson had been fawning all over him. It was absolutely disgusting, and he dreamed once again of proving just how pathetic he really was to everyone. Then he would get Parkinson back and make her pay for ever thinking that she could get away from him.

Since everyone else was still in class or up in their dormitory, he chose to take the opportunity to talk to Nott, he decided he really didn't care if the other boys overheard, as the secret wouldn't need to be kept for long.

"Nott," Malfoy said, "when is this plan of yours going to take effect, I want Potter taken care of."

Nott nodded, "just get me my troll and we'll do it."

Malfoy frowned, he still couldn't understand just what Nott needed a troll for.

"You'll get your troll then," Malfoy told him, "I don't care what you do with it, just make sure its worth my time to procure."

"Very well," Nott agreed.

"I expect you to win and win so completely that Potter is brought to a blubbering mess," Malfoy said, "I want to see him brought so low that there is no chance of his ever getting up."

"Potter won't know what hit him," Nott agreed, "I've got a few tricks up my sleeve if you get my drift."

Malfoy grinned, whatever Nott had planned it was hopefully something particularly devious.

"Just what is it are you planning to do?" Malfoy asked.

"A good wizard never reveals his secrets," Nott answered mysteriously.

Neither of the boys realized however that they were being watched by Carloman the invisible man, who immediately went to go report to Dumbledore.

"Professor Dumbledore," Carloman said when he finally got there, having had to travel several stories and a great number of paintings to get there.

"What is it Carloman?" Dumbledore asked, sitting at his desk, currently looking over the accident report for the flying incident that Madame Pomfrey had just sent him.

"The pasty faced weasel friend of Malfoy's plans to challenge Harry Potter to a duel to win back Ms. Parkinson tonight at dinner," Carloman informed him.

Dumbledore thought for a moment to remember just who Carloman was talking about then he realized he was referring to Nott, a student he barely knew but he could remember Nott's uncle, an accomplished duelist and former member of Voldemort's inner circle. If Nott was the one making such a challenge it did not bode well, he had heard from another portrait while trying to figure out just who Malfoy would use for his dirty work that Nott had once bragged to his fellow students that his uncle had trained him how to duel over the summer.

"What exactly does Nott plan to do?" Dumbledore asked.

"He wouldn't say," Carloman replied, "just that he had a few tricks up his sleeve."

Of course when he heard that Dumbledore immediately knew that he probably meant some unknown way to cheat. This would require some careful forethought if he were to ensure Harry's victory. It would be earlier than he had planned but this was a duel he wanted Harry to fight in, one of his connections had given him the knowledge that Nott was betrothed to Su Li, the daughter of Lord Li, another person on the wizengamot he had been hoping to persuade to join his side. He would just have to do something that would ensure victory.

"Very good Carloman," Dumbledore said finally, "please stand on alert and let me know if they let anything else slip that I might be able to use.

"As you wish headmaster," Carloman responded as he began surfing through portraits again leaving Dumbledore to his thoughts.

It appears that if I am to ensure that Harry retains his control over Ms. Parkinson I will have to take matters into my own hands, Dumbledore thought.


	4. Nott a duel

Chapter 4 Nott a duel

It was shortly before Halloween that Nott was finally able to enact his plans when Draco approached him in the common room late one night.

"I got you your troll," he told him, "it had better be worth it, my father had to pay a steep price for it, some Romanian wizard tried to make a bid for it as well from the seller he found, ended up having to pay way more than it was worth."

"It's worth it," reassured Nott, "the troll is vital to my plans."

"You going to tell me just what you plan to do with it yet?" asked Draco.

"Just be sure and have whoever is holding it for you to let it into the school when I tell you to," Nott informed him, "I'm assuming that getting it into school won't be a problem?"

"Getting it into the school should be easy," Draco answered, "controlling it afterwards not so much, especially not without anyone getting caught."

"That won't be a problem," replied Nott, "just get it into the school for me, that's all I ask, I can handle the rest."

"Are you sure you wouldn't be willing to tell me what your plan is? Draco asked one last time.

Nott was tempted to continue to not saying anything, after all he had certainly been enjoying watching Draco beg to know, but finally he relented and decided to tell him, for the right price of course.

"How about you pay me 10 galleons to learn my plan?" Nott offered.

"Make it 5 and you have a deal," Draco suggested.

"Done," Nott replied, "okay here's the plan..."

Unbeknownst to the two boys an invisible someone or something was listening into their conversation.

An hour later, said someone or something had already informed Dumbledore of the plan.

As Dumbledore thought over the plan, he realized that it was a good plan, for an 11 year old that is.

In an 11 year old's mind, the plan seemed foolproof, but Dumbledore knew better, it had way too many problems for it to have a good chance of succeeding. Fortunately for Nott, he was going to help him with most of it, minus the part about Harry losing the duel, as he wanted Harry to duel him just as much so he could get him to win that marriage contract with Su Li and thus the opportunity to get another supporter on the wizengamot. The revised plan would indeed be foolproof.

The original plan as it was, however, was that Nott would get Harry mad enough to want to duel him, threaten his friends, etc, then get him in trouble with Snape, and get him detention during the Halloween Feast just before the scheduled duel, and make sure he was alone then let a troll into the school near where Harry was, and he then figured that the troll should take him out or at least injure him enough that he wouldn't be in any condition to fight and have to forfeit.

Again, the brilliant plan of an 11 year old.

If it were him, he would have secretly put troll pheromones on Harry so the troll would go after him instead. Or avoided the bother of having to obtain a troll in the first place by having him have an "accident" some other way. Trolls were great if you wanted to create a distraction, and cause maximum damage. Not to go after a single target usually.

This would require him to build upon Nott's plan and improve upon it. First of all, he decided that Harry would have to have more incentive to want to fight Nott, he'd never have accepted the duel with Malfoy and gamble his marriage contract with Susan Bones unless he had imperioused her into doing it for him. Pansy Parkinson would be even less likely to want him to duel and risk being forced to be with Nott, or likely back to Malfoy eventually. He'd just have to be there and imperious her too, and have her give a valid and at least somewhat believable reason for her to want Harry to duel.

He also decided that while tempting to get Harry out of fighting the troll just in case something happened, he decided this particular event would have to happen. He'd make sure Harry did have to face the troll so Nott wouldn't be suspicious, but he'd make sure Harry didn't get a chance to come to any harm before he swooped in and saved him at the last second.

This would provide several benefits: first he would get the lasting gratitude from Harry for saving his life, which would cause him to look up to him. Second he would have other students question their desire to want to fight Harry in the future, as the story would soon spread that Harry had faced a troll then fought in a duel immediately afterwards and won. Thirdly, and most important of all, he would have grounds to administer to Harry certain potions to "alleviate any harm or emotional trauma" that might have been caused by the troll. In reality, said potions would cause spells that he was hit with to become much weaker and should stop whatever a first year, like Nott could perform on him. He would also give him potions that would cause him to move a bit faster, and have his spells be stronger. With all of those potions in his system it would be almost impossible for him to lose.

At least getting him detention during the Halloween feast wouldn't be a problem, the planned teacher to carry it out, Professor Snape would have given Harry detention for simply existing if he could get away with it.

He was no fool as to what was going on with him, he used to get complaints about Professor Snape daily when he had first started teaching from students and other teachers, but eventually they learned that he was never going to do anything about it and stopped pestering him. They still weren't happy about it, but he didn't care, Professor Snape was far too valuable an asset for him. In addition to his having been a spy during the war with Voldemort, he was unscrupulous enough and good enough a potions' master to make the many various illegal potions that he needed made without questioning the motive, for example the potions he planned to use on Harry, illegal and extremely difficult to make. It was all for the greater good of course. He knew of no one else who could have replaced him, which meant he was indispensable. If some of the students and faculty wanted to continue complaining about how he should fire him, let them. It was all for the greater good, he thought once again.

However, much Professor Snape's role in Nott's plan seemed assured, he reasoned even that could use a little bolstering. Perhaps open up an old wound for him and remind him about how great of a couple James Potter and Lily Potter, formerly Evans were. That should make him even more mad at Harry than usual. If Nott failed to get Harry in detention during the Halloween feast he'd just have to get him in detention another way, but he wasn't too concerned on this front.

He still had a lot to do, but still plenty of time to do them in.

DUELDUELDUELDUEL

Halloween

Nott had plans to make as he left the Slytherin Common room for potions class, and although he was confident that he should easily defeat Harry Potter, that did not mean that he shouldn't take every precaution necessary, that was why Malfoy had lost, being so overly confident that he had trusted in his filibuster wand and in Harry Potter's inexperience. Any number of things could have gone wrong, such as Potter finding a way around the wand inspection law so he had his wand confiscated, Potter being just as strong as he had been rumored to be, anything really. Malfoy was an idiot but unfortunately a rich and powerful idiot and he was obligated to win the duel for him and win back his precious strumpet Parkinson.

He however would make no such mistakes, first of all he was confident enough in his own dueling skills that he would have no need to cheat, at least not in a way that he might get caught. That was where the troll came in, Potter would be so injured and tired fighting the troll (if not dead) that he would be easy to defeat, if he was even able to fight at all.

He arrived in his potions class a minute after the bell, but of course Professor Snape chose to ignore his tardiness, despite the fact that he was currently already taking points from Neville Longbottom who had apparently arrived just before he did.

"If you are ever late again for my class Mr. Longbottom I'll give you detention," Professor Snape told the now quivering boy, "I don't care if you had to go to the hospital wing again."

Professor Snape was a vindictive, nasty and cruel human being, someone that Nott sought to emulate.

The class soon got started on their potions, with him diligently working on it. Of course Potions wasn't something he really enjoyed or was good at, but he could have been as bad at it as Longbottom and Snape would still have given him a decent grade.

He normally would have been content to sit working on his potion silently but in order for his plans for Potter to work he would need to cause a bit of a commotion.

Reaching into his pocket he pulled out a small wet start firecracker and threw it into Longbottom's cauldron, instantly causing the cauldron's contents to explode.

Had the potion done as it was supposed to it would have merely caused the loss of a few unwanted warts. Unfortunately in Longbottom's case, who had happened to be peering into his cauldron at the time, it had nearly the opposite effect, causing huge boils to manifest all over his face, neck, and arms, all of which having been exposed to it.

"Idiot boy!" Professor Snape raged as he went over to assess the damage.

"I didn't do it this time Professor," Longbottom said, looking like he was about to cry both from the pain of the hot potion stinging his skin and his obvious fear of Professor Snape, "someone threw something into my cauldron."

"What are you blubbering about Longbottom?" Professor Snape queried but nevertheless peered down into his cauldron.

When his eyes no doubt alighted on the firecracker, he quickly put on a glove and lifted the remains of it out of the cauldron and held it up so the whole class could see.

"Somebody figured they could have a little fun at Longbottom's expense did they?" Professor Snape asked, "figured that I wouldn't figure it out since Longbottom could so easily have blown up his own cauldron did they?"

Now was his chance.

"It was Potter, I saw him," Nott declared, pointing a finger at him for good measure.

Potter was no doubt surprised, and since he had been clear across the room, and unless he was a very good shot or had incredible luck nobody could possibly have believed such a thing. Any other teacher would have had good reason to dispute if not reject entirely Nott's claim, but Professor Snape was no other teacher.

"Good work Nott," Professor Snape told him, "take 5 points for Slytherin for doing the right thing and turning in the culprit. Potter, that will be 5 points from Gryffindor for intentionally trying to harm another student and use of a firecracker. That will also be a detention tonight."

"I didn't do it though Professor," Potter declared.

"Another 5 points for lying," Professor Snape sneered, barely able to hide the enjoyment he was obviously getting from being able to torment Potter again.

"Um Professor," Nott said, "I believe Potter might better serve his detention with Filch tonight. He was needing someone to clean all of the bathrooms in the dungeons."

Since he knew that it was a well known fact that the Weasley twins had recently begun their yearly escapades by pouring a magic resistant, foul smelling gunk all over the floor of a couple of the bathrooms in the dungeon in order to give Filch a particularly hard time cleaning it up he figured if asked Filch would certainly agree to allowing a student to do it so he could get out of it.

Snape smiled his nasty smile and then turned to Potter and told him, "very well then, you can serve your detention with Filch, I'm sure that he will be grateful for your help."

This elicited a groan from Potter, he no doubt also knew what he would be doing.

"Perhaps he should also start a bit earlier than usual, such as during the Halloween feast," Nott suggested, "that way everyone will be at the feast and he won't inconvenience anyone by cleaning the bathrooms when they want to use it."

"Good idea Nott," Professor Snape replied, realizing himself that this would mean him missing the feast and all of the festivities.

Potter looked like he might protest again but instead was at least smart enough to shut his mouth this time. Instead he sent an angry glare in his direction.

He gave a huge grin in return.

When class was finally over and they had all left class, involving Potter having to wipe up the contents of Longbottom's splattered potion, he lingered back in the corridor with his nemesis to enact stage two of his plan.

"A shame that you'll have to miss the feast," Nott taunted, "but I suppose I was only really doing you a favor, so you would have an excuse not to have to celebrate the anniversary of your parent's deaths."

This was low he realized, lower even than he would normally go but it was necessary for him to get the right reaction out of him.

He did indeed look hurt at this taunt, but unfortunately he was still in control enough of his emotions for him not to really try anything. This did not however apply to his muggleborn housemate Hermione .

"How could you say such a thing?" She demanded angrily.

"I was merely looking out for Potter here," Nott defended, "he would only be doing what the boy-who-lived is supposed to do, be a hero and save the day. In this instance it just means we'll have clean bathrooms."

He pretended to laugh at this as he watched for the reaction of Potter.

"I know it was you who threw that firework into Neville's cauldron," Potter finally declared, "even if I have no proof, and don't you dare ever say anything about my parents again."

Nott pretended to be shocked and scared then countered with, "what are you going to do about it Potter? I can say whatever I want about anyone, including your little mudblood slave, hope she's actually good for something when she gets older because she isn't much now, just some bossy, hideous little walking dictionary freak."

Granger looked like she was about to cry, and he could already see tears welling up. He knew now was his chance, she might even now be at the breaking point.

"I'll tell you what Granger," he informed her, "I'll sell you a beauty potion if you agree to be my slave and "service me" like you'll end up servicing Potter."

At his intimation of Potter's eventual use for the girl, Potter finally had had enough and shoved him, not a big shove but enough that he now had grounds to go just where he wanted.

"Oh you want to fight is it?" Nott asked, "well then let's see if you really have the courage for it? Challenge me to a duel and if you win I'll never say a single bad thing against you or anyone else of your friends for that matter."

"And if he wins?" Parkinson asked, clearly seeing that something was up.

"Then I think my fair reward would be oh I don't know how about you," Nott said, attempting to place a hand around her shoulder which was instantly rejected by her.

"Harry," Granger said, who was now really crying, "you don't need to do this, I'll be okay."

Potter looked back at the girl, looking like he desperately wanted to do something for her, but as he then looked back at Parkinson also realizing that he could never gamble her away again, especially after just having won her from Malfoy.

He had been hoping that Potter would challenge him to the duel and not the other way around, but it was not critical to his plan, only make it easier.

"Hey what are all of you students doing crowding in the corridor again?" Dumbledore asked, appearing unexpectedly, "another duel I hope?"

"No Professor," Potter said back, "I don't wish to duel anyone at this time, even if the person might deserve it."

To Nott's surprise, however, it was Parkinson who actually jumped in to encourage him to duel."

"Harry, its okay," she told him gently, "you need to do this for me."

"Why would you take such a risk?" he asked her incredulously, "do you really think I would be so stupid to gamble one of you away like that again?"

"I'm grateful to you for that," Pansy admitted, "but I can't live with myself by allowing myself more safety but leave someone else in the same position I was."

"What are you talking about?" Harry demanded.

"Su Li," Pansy admitted, "she's the one betrothed to Nott, "if you don't duel him and win her in said duel, you would just be consigning her to the same fate that I was in.

Pansy was a nice girl but he would never have thought that she would care enough about someone else she really didn't even know and risk losing him and having to be with Nott.

"Do it Harry," she demanded, "you can win, I know you can."

He was still pretty skeptical about all this, but since it seemed like the right thing to do and she wanted him to do it so badly he finally decided to honor her request.

"All right Nott," Harry told him, "I challenge you to a duel."

As shocked as he was by this turn of events for just a moment, he quickly realized that of course it had worked, his plan was foolproof, after all he was the one to come up with it.

"Then I accept your duel," Nott said, "what are your terms?"

"I want you to stop insulting Hermione," Harry replied, "and if I win, you have to give me your marriage contract with Su Li."

"Agreed, and in return you have to give me yours with Pansy Parkinson if you lose, and since you were the one to challenge me to the duel, I get to choose the time and I pick right after the Halloween feast," Nott informed him.

"That would be acceptable to me," Harry answered.

"Then its settled," Dumbledore announced, "then if you both would please hold out your wands, and repeat after me, "I state your name, do hereby accept this wizard's duel, and swear upon my magic that if I am defeated that I will give the agreed upon property that is my own to my victor, so mote it be."

Both Nott and Potter did so, causing a spark to jump, signifying the binding obligation to the duel.

Nott left with Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle then, grinning smugly as Draco patted him on the back. His plan was working perfectly.

Meanwhile Harry was still in a daze as people crowded around him to offer their support. Had he really just entered into another duel? At least this time he would be a lot more prepared, he knew a great deal more magical spells and had way more experience dueling with his practicing with Flitwick every other night, along with what he also assigned him for homework. He hoped that the duel would actually be as easy as everyone was claiming it would be for him.

"You'll totally crush him," Dean suggested.

"Absolutely," agreed Seamus.

"I think so too," Ron said, "but I also can't see why you would agree to duel that twerp just to defend Granger. It's not like she's worth it to anyone."

He looked over at Hermione, who was still crying, but when she heard stupid Ron open up his big fat mouth against her, she made a run for it to a destination unknown. He tried to stop her, but people were still pressed too tightly around him for him to be able to do so. Likewise when he tried to call out to her, she apparently failed to hear him.

DUELDUELDUELD

The rest of the day, he was quite busy. First he had tried to find Hermione and see if there was anything he could say to make her feel better, but she wasn't in any of her other classes that day, and she wasn't in her dormitory when he asked Parvati to look for her there. He might have searched further, but admittedly he was rather busy otherwise.

He also had to deal with the many people who kept trying to wish him luck, or in a few cases give him things that would help him win, such as Seamus's lucky shamrock, or a paste made from dragon bones that a 5th year Gryffindor boy claimed would protect him from harm. He rejected both of these proffered items, especially the dragon bones as he wasn't sure they were entirely safe for human consumption.

The worst was Pansy, who immediately after her sudden desire to have him duel Nott, had done an about face and seemed entirely distressed and wondering just why she had done so in the first place. At least she did not blame him, just made him promise to win the duel for her.

Susan of course realized that simply going around claiming that he would trounce Nott, simply wishing him luck, or going all to pieces over it would not really help the situation, offered to help him practice. The only time they got, however, was during lunch, and since he really needed to eat if he was going to be skipping the feast for detention and then fight Nott immediately afterwards, their time was limited.

His best chance to really practice however and prepare was during Charms. Since he had already proven he could cast Wingardium Leviosa, Professor Flitwick had let him go use his dueling room to practice in. Since he was still mad at Ron for being a jerk to Hermione, and he was getting irritated with Seamus, Dean, and Neville and their constant "you can't possibly lose drivel" and the fact that Hermione wasn't around, he'd finally managed to get Parvati to practice on.

Unfortunately it became quite obvious that Parvati wasn't much of a duelist, and he quickly and routinely defeated her. He suspected Nott would have to be a much better duelist if he had wanted him to challenge him to a duel. Professor Flitwick popped in for 10 minutes however and gave him plenty of last minute worthwhile advice.

Finally he made his way down to the dungeons, where he had been told that Filch would be waiting for him.

"There are 6 bathrooms on this floor that need cleaning," Filch informed him, "some hooligan or miscreant thought they would have some fun at my expense and put some kind of magic resistant gunk on the floor so I would have to clean it up by hand. Well the joke is on them because you're going to have to clean it up instead."

Filch grinned nastily at him, and handed him a mop, a broom, a scaper, and a few other tools.

"Better get to work," he said, "I hear you got a duel to fight, hope you don't make too much of a mess when you die, otherwise I'll have to get another student serving detention to clean what's left of you up for me."

Grateful for the confidence that Filch had given him, he went inside the first bathroom. As he had expected, simply mopping it up proved to be impossible and so he was forced to use the scraper to get it up, chunk by chunk. The only upside to such backbreaking work was that at least he had plenty of experience cleaning the old fashioned way.

He had just made it inside his 4th bathroom when he heard a sob from inside one of the stalls.

"Hello is their anyone in there?" he asked.

"Harry is that you?" Hermione's voice asked as she opened up the door.

"I've been looking all over for you," he told her.

"Why bother?" Hermione said, her face obviously tear stained, "its not like I'm worth it anyway."

"Come on, you can't listen to Nott or Ron, they are just jerks.," Harry said.

"No its true," Hermione answered, "I'm just some brainy bookworm who doesn't know how to be friends with anyone."

"I could be your friend you know Hermione," Harry said, "and not like in the way that Nott was suggesting either."

"You don't need to do that for me Harry," Hermione replied, "you already have many much better friends than me, and far more beautiful girls to be around, you're even going to be married to two of them. You were just stupid to agree to fight Nott for me and risk that."

"I had my other reasons as well," Harry admitted, "but I still believe that you're worth defending."

"Do you really mean that?" Hermione asked.

"I do," Harry responded.

Hermione opened her mouth to reply, when suddenly there was a loud crash from behind them, as the door was busted down, and a huge, monstrous something stood in front of the broken down doorway.

"Is that a troll?" Hermione asked in bewilderment and fear.

The troll was still looking around at the damage it had caused, when Harry decided that his promise of defending Hermione was certainly going to have to be put to the test now because he pointed his wand at it.

"Rictusempra," he shouted

It hit the troll point blank but didn't appear to really do anything to his complete frustration.

"Trolls have really thick skin," Hermione informed him, "its magic resistant."

That would complicate things, he figured, but he could at least distract it until hopefully somebody realized that a troll had somehow managed to get loose inside the school and get a teacher to stop it somehow.

He used wingardium leviosa to pick up the broken door and hit the troll with it, but this only caused the troll to get more mad as it winced in pain.

It swung its club in his direction, missing horribly but shattered one of the toilets nonetheless.

Just as he was beginning to despair, however, someone came to his rescue, and it certainly wasn't who he had expected to come save him.

DUELDUELDUELD

Dumbledore was currently standing just outside the bathroom behind the troll wearing the invisibility cloak James Potter had once lent him, just about to swoop in and save the day when suddenly a young first year girl that looked chinese with long knee length black hair and sporting a ravenclaw uniform came up behind the troll and stabbed one of its legs with a long dagger forcing the troll down onto one knee and cause it to howl in pain, before thrusting another dagger into the other leg, causing it to collapse onto both knees, now desperately trying to swing at his assailant.

The girl was quite good at avoiding the trouble, but the bathroom simply wasn't big enough to have an effective amount of ground to keep between it and her. She took the time to toss one of her daggers to Harry, and the other she used to bravely stab at the troll's hand with after one of its swings.

While his hand was injured, the troll continued to fight with his other hand, doing what all trolls do when injured: want to fight even more.

It was Harry then who made the next and ultimately final move, he levitated the dagger the girl had given him and thrust it directly into one of the troll's exposed eyes.

The troll gave one last scream of pain then collapsed onto the ground, dead.

This certainly was not how things were supposed to go, he was supposed to save the day, but at least Potter was unharmed and the troll taken care of.

He removed his invisibility cloak and stuffed it inside his undetectable expansion charmed pocket then came out from his hiding place.

"Just what happened here?" he demanded, feigning that he had just arrived and knew nothing.

"Somehow a troll got loose in the school," Harry explained to him.

"Don't worry we took care of it for you," the chinese girl with the long hair said.

"You were the one who did all the work," Harry told her.

"Well you finished him off for me though," the girl answered.

"Just who are you then, and why did you go after the troll? Don't you know that it could have been dangerous," Dumbledore scolded her, upset that she had managed to get to the troll before he did. Both Harry and Hermione were looking at the girl with admiration and gratitude in their eyes, the same gratitude he had been expecting.

"Well I couldn't let my future betrothed get hurt could I?" the girl replied, "I'm Su Li."


	5. A Duel for Nott

Author's Note: I've been getting lots of complaints about how much they hate Dumbledore in this story, which actually surprises me, since there are lots of stories with way worse Dumbledores than mine. The problem is that in order for the story to work, Dumbledore has to be bad and influence Harry negatively in some way. I simply can't get around that, and he'll have to make appearances in the story later on, but I'll try not to use him as much after these next two chapters, that are already written and require him to be in the chapters. I want to reinforce this: Dumbledore in this story will not be the evil, trying to ruin Harry's life Dumbledore and maintain secret power over the wizarding world dumbledore that you read so much, but more the doing whatever he thinks is necessary even if its bad thing, all for the greater good Dumbledore. You should see the difference in the next chapter

Chapter 5

A duel for Nott

The reasons why Su Li now found herself having just faced a troll and was now standing with Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Albus Dumbledore were too numerous and too complex to be explained away so easily.

It began when she was only 5, when her father decided to send her to live with her aunt in China, who trained her in the art of dueling and armed combat, both magical and non-magical. Such a life had been demanding, but certainly one she would have chosen for herself. As her aunt always claimed, fighting was in her blood.

Then just as she was growing used to the idea that this would be her life, even planning to attend a magical school there and hone her skills when her father decided that after the last 6 years of not even bothering to write her or contact her in anyway that she was somehow now valuable enough to him to keep her at home and create a marriage contract between her and one Theodore Nott, so that he could finalize a business deal he had made with Nott's father. She felt it completely unfair, but she knew it would do no good to argue, her aunt had taught her to strike at the right moment, and wait patiently. She also originally figured she might as well give Nott a chance.

Of course, within just 5 minutes of meeting him for the first time, after he insisted that she should be fatter and have wider hips to produce a good sized heir for him, get her breasts magically enlarged later on since chinese witches were usually rather small in that department, even if he lamented at the high cost it would be, and also cut her hair and leave it no longer than chin length since he liked it that way, she had had enough of him. When he had gotten to asking why her feet were not bound like a good chinese girl, she was ready to smack him, regardless of her not being supposed to do anything just yet. Fortunately he had been spared by his father asking for him directly after saying that.

In that time he had basically insulted her in so many ways beginning with the idea that he thought himself entitled to force her to do anything, especially when it came to her body. She liked her body the way it was, she liked being in shape, her breasts were fine to develop naturally even if they were small, she absolutely would never dream of cutting her hair that short, and she found foot binding a barbaric practice that even her father, as uncaring a parent as could be would never have allowed it to be done on her.

This was only the beginning of only a few short months of a relationship with Nott that was anything but enjoyable. Fortunately he visited her only seldom and each time she would just nod along to whatever he was saying while imagining sticking her dagger in front of his throat and then start telling how she expected him to behave towards her.

Yet she had so far resisted waiting for the right time and the time came only a few short hours before when Nott had told her that he would be fighting Harry Potter in a duel and that she was expected to support him at said duel when he won.

After trying to ascertain just how he was so confident he would win, he wouldn't tell her, but said that she would find out.

Whatever Nott had had planned couldn't be good, so she was even more on high alert than usual, keeping both of her daggers stuffed down her robes, as even if they were not needed, their presence helped her feel more secure.

That was when during the feast Professor Snape had come in to inform everyone that there was a troll in the dungeon.

She put two and two together, she wasn't sure how, but the troll was somehow related to Nott and his plan for Harry Potter.

In an effort to protect perhaps her only chance at getting out of her undesirable relationship with Nott, she'd run down to the dungeons as fast as she could to intercept the troll.

Now here she was, a dead troll next to her, and the headmaster in front of her, having just told him her name.

She immediately noticed that Dumbledore recognized who she was, not by her face, but by name, either because he knew her father, or because of her betrothal to Theodore Nott.

"Ms. Li," Dumbledore finally said, "how did you manage to take down this troll?"

He knew that he was probably asking how she had the abilities necessary to take down a troll, but she decided to ignore that and focus on exactly how she had done it.

"Took it out the best I could Professor by stabbing its legs," she replied, "I couldn't let the troll get any closer to Hermione or Harry, and I didn't finish him off, Harry used one of my daggers to stab it through the eye and kill it."

She had to admit that she found Harry killing the troll to be very attractive, even if it was a weird reason to be attracted to someone.

"Well let me at least look you over for any signs of damage," Dumbledore suggested as he did a diagnostics spell quickly on them.

"You all seem to be fine," he announced afterwards, "Madame Pomfrey might be able to do a better job than I could but I would say that you are all okay, however I would recommend that you each receive a calming draught to help you feel better after this traumatic experience.

"I'm fine," Harry told him, "but Su or Hermione might want one."

"You're absolutely right Harry," Dumbledore agreed, "wouldn't want you being too calmed down before your duel, how about a calming draught for you two ladies and a strong pepper up potion for you, you must be tired after having to scrub floors and fight trolls."

"I should be okay Professor," Harry replied.

"I'm afraid I really must insist Harry," Dumbledore responded, "I can't have one of my students put at any unnecessary risk."

Harry nodded, and drank down the proffered potion without objection, along with both Hermione and Su who drank theirs.

"Wow I feel really energized," Harry admitted, "like a million galleons!"

"It might have been a bit strong," Dumbledore answered, "and one of the side effects is that it might make you feel more energized and stronger than you actually are. It's not dangerous however."

Dumbledore seemed to think that that concluded things but Harry had just one last question.

"Professor, I just have one question," Harry asked, "um I'm supposed to be serving detention by cleaning the bathrooms, and now there's a whole dead troll I have to clean up, so would you mind making sure no other trolls come in until I finish cleaning?"

It was a completely out there joke, especially considering the circumstances, which is exactly what Su liked about it.

She couldn't resist laughing, earning a look of incredulity from Hermione, and a look of amusement from Dumbledore, who chuckled a bit himself.

"That will not be required Mr. Potter," Dumbledore told him, "I would dare say that fighting trolls were not in your job description. You are free to go unless you would really like to stay here and clean up. "

"No Professor, I think I've fought enough trolls for one day," Harry said, still handling everything in stride, "besides I already have an another fighting obligation."

"Of course you'd better go get ready for that, I'll be along shortly myself," Dumbledore told him, "and take 10 points each to both Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, and if you happen to see Argus Filch, tell him to get in here, he has a mess to clean up."

Grateful to leave the carnage behind the 3 of them left the bathroom, poor Hermione looking like a million thoughts were running through her mind, although from what little Su knew about her, she always seemed to look like she had a million thoughts running through her mind

Yet before she got a chance to express them, they passed by the group of teachers who were only just now getting there. Professor McGonagall asked them, "what exactly happened here?"

Harry simply shrugged his shoulders and said, "killed a troll."

Okay, that was seriously attractive too, Su thought, goodness the boy knew knew how to charm her even if he didn't realize it. Acted like it was no big deal, just "killed a troll." He acted like he really had just been cleaning the bathroom floors, not killed a troll.

"Yep," Su agreed, "sorry for making you come all the way down here."

The teachers all looked awestruck as they struggled to process just what they had said, but Harry only smiled again, and went over to Argus Filch and handed him the mop that he had picked up earlier.

"Professor Dumbledore wants you to help clean up the mess," Harry grinned wickedly, "thought you might need this."

After that he got up and left, with both her and Hermione following in tow.

As soon as they were out of earshot, Hermione asked, "what on earth was that Harry? We just fought a troll and barely escaped for our lives and you're acting like it was nothing."

"I told you it was no big deal to defend you Hermione," Harry countered, "and normally I would feel out of it too, but ever since I took that pepper up potion I feel great, confident even. Maybe its just a side effect and it'll wear off but I'm hoping it at least lasts until I beat Nott, and make him pay for badmouthing you."

"Is all of this all about me?" Hermione queried, "I told you I'm not worth it."

"I just fought a troll for you and you don't think you're worth it?" Harry asked.

Hermione seemed unable to reply to that.

"A guy fights a troll for you, and you still don't get it," Su couldn't resist saying, "most girls would get a clue by then."

"I'd like to at least be friends Hermione," Harry offered.

Finally Hermione, after looking at him a moment longer replied with, "very well then, friends."

"An offer of friendship huh," she said, "how do I get one of those?"

"How about I do you one better?" Harry asked, "unless you really want to be with Nott, a marriage proposal?"

Normally a marriage proposal at her young age would have instantly been rejected, but given the circumstances and the all likelihood of such a thing happening whether she wanted to or not she found it flattering that he would at least ask her.

"I accept," she told him.

"Then I shall fight to win your hand," he said dramatically.

"Who was this guy?" Su wondered, side effect or not, she was seriously crushing on him, a major thing for her as she couldn't think of anyone she had ever really crushed on before, at least no one her age and wasn't a combat expert. The fact that he could very well be her husband made things all the more complex in her mind.

They made their way into the great hall, where the students had apparently all stayed during the duration of the troll emergency. They had wanted to have everyone go back to their dormitories, but Dumbledore had decided that it was safer for them to all just stay there.

"Here take one of my daggers Harry to prove what you did," Su suggested, "I can't wait to see the look on Nott's face when he learns you killed the troll, it should totally unnerve him for the duel."

"Again you did most of the work," he reminded her.

"You killed it in the end though which means its your kill, so go and claim credit," she answered.

Upon opening the doors, Harry held the still bloody long dagger aloft and said, looking pointedly at Nott, "that would be how you kill a troll, who's next?"

Several students actually fainted and the rest broke out in whispers, or outright asked him what happened.

He ignored all of them, however, as he didn't seem to want to brag about it, just unnerve Nott. Another plus to be added to her growing list of observances about Harry.

To her great delight, Nott certainly looked unnerved, especially when Harry held the still bloody knife and pointed it at him and said, "let's duel."

Nott looked like he was stalling when he said, "well, Dumbledore isn't here yet."

"I'm here now," Dumbledore informed him as he came in behind them, "what do you need me for?"

"Well in light of my opponent having had to fight a troll which is sure to have exhausted him, I'm prepared to cut him some slack and forgo the duel," Nott suggested.

There were many boos at this, no one was fooled into thinking that Nott was being magnanimous in letting Harry off the hook, he was now scared he was going to lose.

"I'm afraid you already made a wizard's oath to duel him," Dumbledore said, "so if you wish to let Mr. Potter to not have to duel you that can be arranged, as long as you present to him the things that you wagered, namely your marriage contract with Su Li, and a promise to no longer antagonize that of Mr. Potter or those he considers his friends that can arranged. Don't worry I can take care of the formalities for you."

Dumbledore seemed to be enjoying this, as he was already acting like Nott had already forfeited, but Nott finally realized he couldn't back out now.

"Wait no," Nott said, realizing that he was now trapped, "of course I'll duel him."

He stepped forward, trying to regain what little confidence he still seemed to have and allowed Dumbledore to create the dueling field for them.

"Now then are the contenders ready?" Dumbledore asked.

When both Harry and Nott nodded, Dumbledore said, "you will then bow and then the duel will begin. Now go."

Nott and Harry bowed and then the duel immediately began.

It became obvious that this would be way different than Harry's first fight, she had been concerned that Nott's dueling experience that she knew he had received at the hands of his uncle might clinch things for him, but she needn't have worried, Harry seemed a natural duelist, and he obviously had done plenty of training since then.

They circled the dueling arena, each casting a spell while trying to avoid the ones cast by their opponent. It was obvious that Nott had some skill and training as well, but it soon became very evident who was the better duelist. Harry was moving as fast, and casting spells as fast as any professional duelist, he must be on some kind of adrenaline rush this time, because this duel was totally different from the last one. Each spell that came near him he easily dodged, and was able to fire off more spells than Nott. Nott in fact was kept busy just avoiding spells, most of which he barely managed to dodge.

However much the duel might seem secure, she knew that it could change at any moment, just one lucky hit from Nott could effectively end the duel.

She wished that there was something that she could do other than just stand there, but she knew that it was in Harry's hands now, and fate.

It was at that moment, however, that Nott made his move, or rather someone else did it for him. While everyone had been busy watching the duel, Blaise Zabini got up behind Pansy who was standing at the very edge of the dueling arena, and shoved her into it.

In that one brief moment as Pansy tried to figure out what happened and who shoved her, Nott made his move, he had obviously been planning this himself, and hit her with a cutting hex, hitting her cheek, causing blood to begin forming from the wound.

The wound was not very bad, as it was a spell designed only to mildly injure, not kill or cause permanent harm but it had its desired effect.

Harry looked over to see if she was all right, forgetting about Nott for a second, and that was when Nott fired off another spell at him.

Since he was still concentrated on Pansy, he didn't have a chance to react, as he got hit with the spell. She knew that it was probably a stupefy, which should have knocked Harry out. She winced, expecting him to fall, but then to her complete and utter amazement, he seemed to just shrug it off, looking slightly unsteady for a second, but otherwise okay.

Nott looked shocked that his spell hadn't worked, he obviously had been counting on this one opportunity to get in the one spell he would need to take him out.

Instead now Harry looked furious as he realized what Nott had probably done, he could understand Nott trying to hit him, it was a duel after all, but to put one of his friends, and future wives in danger just for a cheap, underhanded trick was something else.

Nott was forced to back peddle, desperately trying to get as much ground as he could between him and Harry.

Harry, however, kept getting closer and closer, firing off spells so fast Nott was barely avoiding them, with no time to couterattack. Finally, Nott got hit, a disarming spell that knocked his wand right out of hands. Harry decided to continue pressing the attack however, and nobody tried to stop him either, many students still enraged at Nott for pulling such a cheap underhanded trick as the one he had just pulled.

She at least recognized the significance of what spells he used next, a paint spell that put a dollop of orange paint on him, first to one leg, then the other, then just above his eye, and finally his cheek. Each as a reminder, at least to himself of the places where the troll had gotten hit, and then Pansy, both he considered Nott responsible for, even if he had no proof. The fact that he would use a non-harmful paint spell showed that he would not descend to such low tactics.

She couldn't help but think once again just how awesome she found him. It would be good to be betrothed to him she thought.

Such a destiny was confirmed with his last hit, launching a stupefy at him and knocking him out.

The audience all broke into cheers, minus many Slytherins who all booed. There was one Slytherin who cheered the loudest, however, which was Pansy, who went and gave Harry another hug.

Of course she was then followed by Susan who hastened to do the same, along with Hannah and Hermione.

Su allowed this all to happen, as Harry's well wishers crowded around him, before to her surprise Harry said something to the crowd which immediately formed a pathway out of there as he walked over to her.

"Well I guess you won me fair and square," she announced smiling once he had gotten close enough, "what are you going to do with me?"

"I don't know," he confessed, suddenly seeming a bit dazed and tired finally.

"What no witty remarks?" she asked.

"Nope, just hope you can be happy with me, that's all," he said.

She was touched that he would say that, wanting her to be happy.

"Then I hope to make you very happy," she told him.

"How would you do that?" he asked.

"By doing this," she told him, as she gently leaned over and kissed him gently.

The kiss only lasted for a fraction of a second, but it was certainly enjoyable at least to her, but to Harry, he looked like he had just gotten hit over the head, seeming completely unsure just how to react. She was a bit afraid that she had done something wrong, but then she noticed he had a grin on his face..

"It'll be awhile before you earn one of those again," she informed him, "so you had better make sure to make me really happy again."

She grinned again and left him standing there, and walked away, also leaving behind a somewhat shocked crowd.

Her friend Padma asked as she passed by her, "did you just..?"

"Yes I sure did," she confirmed, "I just kissed Harry Potter."

DUELDUELDUELD

The aftermath of the duel with Nott and the slaying of a troll put Harry on a new pedestal as far as most of the students and faculty were concerned, and he was already resenting his new increased fame. He was so tired of everyone congratulating him and was just wishing things would go back to normal or at least more normal for being a wizard in a magic school anyway. He would have thought that Flitwick would have at least cut him a break for having won the duel, but instead he seemed even more determined to have him practice even harder, and claim that he had apparently been holding out on him if he was able to win the duel even after having slain a troll. Even he wasn't sure just how he had won the duel so easily. Perhaps it had been just the adrenaline already pumping through him after fighting the troll. In any case, Flitwick now seemed to expect him to do just as well in all of their duels, something he was having trouble matching, but certainly trying his best, even if he was always exhausted after wards.

As for Nott, while he strongly suspected Nott of having conspired to somehow get the troll into the school, he had no proof, and so finally was forced to let the matter go. He also suspected Malfoy of at least putting him up to it, but he also had to let that matter go as well.

There were however upsides to his duel with the troll and Nott. First Hermione had definitely passed into the friend zone, and was a huge asset in helping him with his studies, particularly the written parts that he didn't like nearly so much as the practical. With the amount of dueling practice and additional exercise he was doing, he didn't have as much time as most of the other students to get homework done.

The second upside and definitely the most valuable in his opinion was that he had found a dueling and exercise partner. After questioning Su about how she had known how to take on a troll like that, and learning that she already had a great deal of not only physical combat but magical as well he had gotten her to join him in one of his dueling lessons and see if Flitwick thought she was good enough to teach.

After testing her to find out how good she was, he looked like christmas had come early as he told her:

"I am so looking forward to the dueling championships this year," he announced, so excited he hadn't even thought to ask her if she even wanted to participate.

He rather liked being Flitwick's protege even if it did require some extra effort, and he knew he was going to need it regardless. He had absolutely no doubts that while he was now laying low, Malfoy was still plotting to get Parkinson back, his ego simply wouldn't let him quit. Whenever such a time arrived that he decided to strike he wanted to be ready.

The months rolled by until December came and he suddenly began to worry about Christmas break, and if anyone would also be staying when he stayed at Hogwarts for Christmas. He chose to ask Su what her plans were after one of their practice duels.

They both were gasping and wheezing, they both were evenly matched when it came to magical dueling, and she had just as much endurance and strength as he did. Their win to lose ratio was about even for both of them, even though neither of them had ever been able to win against Flitwick, who was still so annoyingly good and experienced, using spells and techniques they couldn't dream of using just yet.

"I thought for sure I had you," Su claimed, gasping, "it looked like my stupefy hit you point blank."

"You should have, I only just got my shield up in time," Harry told her.

Su gave him the look that she had only reserved for him. He knew after she kissed him that she liked him, but exactly how much he wasn't sure, or just why. Yet every time he won a duel against her, instead of being upset that she lost, she gave him that look, one he had come to recognize that it meant he had done something she liked. He had no idea about romance or how to act, even when these moments came so he chose to just take it in stride and pretend he hadn't noticed. While he liked Su, and he knew that they were going to get married, everything else he wasn't really sure how to handle, and it was made more complicated with the fact that he had two other girls he was also engaged to, who he also was trying to have relationships with, without messing them up.

"So what are your plans for christmas break?" he asked.

"I don't know," she admitted, "my father I'm sure couldn't care less if I stayed at Hogwarts, or Azkaban Prison for the Christmas holidays, he's already made it painfully clear that he's not happy with me that I ruined his business deal with Nott's father."

"You didn't do anything though," Harry exclaimed.

"Not in his eyes," she replied, "in his eyes, I've...brought shame upon the entire Li family."

He had already heard about the rather abysmal relation that Su had with her father, but he hadn't realized that it was this bad.

"Why didn't you tell me this before?" he asked.

"I didn't want you to feel guilty," she responded, "I can deal with the shame, I've never really felt I owed my father anything, he certainly has never given me anything, other than do the one good thing he's ever done for me and sent me to live with my aunt. Besides if it means getting out of having to marry Nott, I'd take the shame in a heartbeat. So no Harry you have no reason to feel guilty, I'm grateful to you."

He looked at her a moment longer, still concerned, but wasn't sure exactly what to say.

"So what are you planning to do over the Christmas holidays?" she asked, "I know you live with your muggle aunt and uncle, but you haven't really said anything else about them, are you going to stay with them over the holidays?"

"Let's just say that my aunt and uncle are much like your father," Harry admitted, "they wouldn't really care where I stay for the holidays either."

"Then I suppose its settled then," she informed him, "we'll spend Christmas together here."

"That would be fantastic," Harry agreed, grateful that he wouldn't have to spend Christmas alone.

"Are you going to check with Pansy and Susan and see what their plans are?" Su queried.

He could tell that Su was trying to be gracious in asking this herself, he knew she liked spending time with him, but also recognized he had obligations to his other two betrothed as well. One of his greatest concerns was that they would all get along with each other, so far they had.

"Yes, I was already planning on it," he replied.

"All right well go find them then," Su told him.

After telling Pansy that he and Su would be staying at Hogwarts over Christmas, she immediately announced that she would be staying too. He suspected from what he had gleaned from her home life that she probably could have gone home for Christmas, but preferred spending it with him. Pansy, like Su, seemed fond of him, and at least a good friendship had emerged between the two of them.

Once she had spoken with her, he went to go talk with Susan, who he suspected would be going home for Christmas to spend time with her aunt, but he figured he might as well make sure at least.

When he finally found her in the library, he asked her about it.

"Yes actually I was meaning to talk to you about that Harry," Susan told him, "you see my aunt was wanting to get to know you better and offered to have you come spend the holidays with me. I know that you were probably wanting to go spend time with your own relatives, but I thought I would at least offer."

"Actually I was planning to stay here for Christmas," he told her, "but I'm not sure if I could take up your offer otherwise, as I already told Su and Pansy that I would be staying here with them."

"Well if they and you would like, they could both come with you," Susan suggested.

"Are you sure that there would be room, and how would your aunt feel?" Harry asked.

"I'm sure she wouldn't mind," Susan answered, "we have a more than big enough house for everyone, its basically empty anyway, my aunt and I are the only ones currently living in it right now."

That sounded perfect to him, even though he wouldn't be spending it with actual family, he would at least be spending it with his future one.


	6. Christmas with the Bones

Chapter 6

Christmas with the Bones

"It'll be fine Harry," Susan said reassuringly to a nervous Harry as he glanced out the window of the train meant to take the 4 of them all to the Bones manor.

"Sorry, I can't help it," he answered, "I just want your aunt to like me, that's all."

"Well I have to admit she'll probably stare you down at the very least," Susan admitted, "she tends to be rather intimidating to people who don't know her very well. Once you do get to know her however, I"m sure she'll like you, besides I've written plenty of good things about you in my letters home to her."

That was certainly nice to hear, but still did little to quell the queasiness in his chest.

"Are you going to be like this with our parents too?" Pansy asked him, sitting across from him with Su.

"I would hope not," Su answered for him, "I could care less if my father was impressed with you. In fact if he is, I'll know there is something wrong."

"I suppose I could see myself feeling the same way," Pansy replied, "although I would say Harry should at least try to make a good impression on Madame Bones, she seems like a decent person."

"Well we'll all know soon enough if Harry can manage to pull it off," Su claimed.

DUELDUELDUEL

When Harry and company finally got off the train to go back to the Bones house, they were all feeling slightly nervous, except Susan who continually reassured them that her aunt would be rather nice to them all, although she was also a bit biased, it being her aunt and not having seen her ever since school started.

With that thought in mind, the woman that he saw who immediately opened up her arms to hug a now running Susan certainly seemed like a nice woman, although even Susan had confessed that she could be quite tough when she needed to be.

Madame Bones, or Aunt Amelia as she was called by Susan, was a short redheaded woman who after hugging Susan, looked at him, as he was just now coming up to her.

"So you're Harry Potter then, the boy who..." she began before he cut her off.

"The boy who lived, I know," he tried to finish for her.

"I was going to say the boy who's going to be marrying my niece," she said.

He suddenly felt very foolish as he realized just which thing he would be known for most in her eyes.

"Harry doesn't like to be praised for his fame," Susan explained to her, "he's just too used to having people do that to him."

"I don't care about fame, I care about the person, I want to know just what kind of boy is going to be marrying my niece," Madame Bones told him, still looking intensely into his eyes as if searching them.

This was almost certainly a test, one that he hoped he passed. He was entirely cognizant that she was the head of the department of magical law enforcement, he wasn't looking forward to getting on her bad side. Even though they already had a contract formed, he had no doubt she could make his life miserable in other ways if she wanted to, this was a woman not to be messed with.

He did his best not to look away from her as he gazed back at her, and responded with, "I'm told that you're the head of the department of magical law enforcement. If I were a criminal you were trying to apprehend, I would expect you to treat me like a criminal, if I were one of your employees I would expect you to treat me as an employee, but if I can win the heart of your niece I expect you to treat me like a son in law."

She laughed, pleased with such a response, and then asked, "and what happens if you don't?"

"Then I suppose you may do with me as you like," he replied.

She laughed again and told Susan, "I like him."

Relief flooded him as he allowed himself to relax just slightly.

Madame Bones then turned to both Pansy and Su, "you must be Pansy and Su, Susan has told me all about you."

"All good things I hope," Su stated.

"She tells me that you're obsessed with fighting, something I'm quite adept at myself. I used to do some dueling myself back in the day, before I got promoted and became a glorified paper pusher," Madame Bones told her, with a tinge of regret in her voice, "I hope that Flitwick has been keeping you two busy."

"He has," replied Su, "he's a really good teacher but also works us as hard as he thinks we're capable of."

"I was hoping that Susan might find an interest in it, but alas she never really took to wanting more than a basic knowledge," Madame Bones continued.

She seemed ready to keep speaking but Susan interjected, "can we go now aunty? I'm eager to see Pegasus."

From what Susan had already told him, Pegasus was Susan's pet flying horse.

"Of course," Madame Bones agreed, "we can talk about dueling once we've gotten back. All right, I'm going to side along apparate Susan and you Harry, and then return for both you Su and you Pansy."

The sensation of apparition was certainly not to his liking, like getting squeezed through a too small tube.

At any rate, when he finally opened his eyes, he found himself in a large entryway, both Madame Bones and Susan still there with him.

"All right, let me go back for the other two," Madame Bones told them, before apparating out again with a crack.

"What did I tell you?" Susan grinned at him.

"Yay, I survived," Harry said sarcastically.

"Oh it wasn't that bad Harry," Susan told him, "I can tell you already impressed her."

At that moment, Madame Bones returned with both Pansy and Su, who were quickly deposited before she left yet again to go back for the luggage.

"Welcome to my home," Susan said to the two girls, both looking slightly disoriented from likely their first apparition experience.

Yet Susan didn't seem to notice, herself obviously used to side-along apparition, and said, "Come on, I want you all to come meet Pegasus and Flopsy."

Pegasus turned out to be a beautiful white flying horse that Susan claimed to have raised from a foal back from when she was only 5, and Flopsy turned out to be their house elf, a creature Harry hadn't heard of or seen before, but apparently was some service loving creature who quite eagerly got them all drinks when Susan asked her to.

While both he and Su sat sipping their drinks, Susan and Pansy took a ride on Pegasus.

"So I've heard that you're quite the duelist from Susan," Madame Bones said to him, coming up behind them, "I would certainly hope so after risking my niece like that."

He winced, fearful that she was still mad at him for that.

"Sorry," he tried to say.

"Oh don't be Harry, you won didn't you?" Madame Bones reminded him, "if you had lost however, now that would be a different story."

"If there was anyway that I could make it up to you...," he tried to say.

"How about a duel for a duel?" she suggested, "if you lose badly enough, I might reconsider being mad at you, but if you can at least hold your own for awhile against me, I'll consider you good enough to be capable of defending Susan's honor, agreed?"

"What happens if I win?" he asked.

She laughed and said, "trust me you won't."

After Susan and Pansy had gotten back and they had explained to them both what would be happening, Madame Bones outlined the grassy area that would be serving as their dueling arena.

"All right Harry," Madame Bones began, "let's begin shall we?"

They both bowed and then the duel began.

He began firing spells as quickly as he could at her, which she instantly erected a shield for.

"Great reaction time, better than I would have expected," Madame Bones told him, "now lets see how well you defend.

He realized then that he hadn't been able to cast spells at her first because he was faster, but because she was only testing him and allowed him to hit first.

His next test proved to be even more difficult as an onslaught of spells were fired at him, forcing him to dodge the first one, and put up a shield for the rest.

If he wasn't so used to fighting an accomplished duelist like Flitwick he probably would have already been hit, but fortunately such experience allowed him to continue avoiding them, taking the few respites between hits to fire off spells of his own.

Yet it was pretty obvious who was the better duelist by far, Madame Bones proved that she hadn't been made head of the DMLE by being a paper pusher, she had some serious skills, even if they might have been atrophied after a decade of sitting at a desk.

Instead it appeared that the whole duel she was only merely testing him.

"I'm impressed Harry," Madame Bones told him, "Flitwick has taught you well, he's the one who originally taught me."

He took advantage then to cast a spell at her, which she deflected with her shield, but caused her to slip back a few inches.

However, he scarcely had time to revel in this even small victory because he got hit himself with a spell that knocked him back and caused him to fall onto a large rock behind him, scraping his back up on impact.

It was painful, but the adrenaline was still pumping through him and he immediately got back up to his feet to continue the duel.

However, it was only seconds later after getting up that he was hit by a full body bind, and fell flat as a board onto the ground, the only good thing about it was that in such a state he could not feel the pain upon impact as his back was no doubt hurt again.

With the duel over, Madame Bones came over and released him from the full body bind.

"Good job Harry," Madame Bones told him, "another several years experience and I'd be proud to have someone like you on my auror force."

Then she noticed his obvious pain, and then added, "you're hurt, let me take a look at it."

"No, I'm fine," Harry tried to explain, wincing even as he said it.

"You most certainly aren't fine, and we won't be able to fix it until we get a look at your back," Madame Bones said, "if its just scraped up I can heal it for you, now take off your shirt."

Harry tried to protest further, but then Susan came around and lifted up his shirt from behind him.

She gasped and immediately let go of his shirt.

"Aunt Amelia, you had better come check this out," Susan said gravely.

Harry tried to stop her, but he was still weak and tired from the duel as Madame Bones lifted it up to see herself.

It became immediately obvious what was the cause for Susan's alarm, not the severity of the scrape, which really wasn't too bad, and could be healed within seconds by her, it was the sheer amount of the other scars that lined his back.

"How did you get these other scars?" she demanded.

"Just a few accidents here and there," Harry replied meekly.

"Either you are the most accident prone child on earth or someone did this to you," Madame Bones stated, "was it your relatives? The ones you grew up with?"

Harry looked back at her, looking fearful before answering, "yes."

"Harry why didn't you tell us or at least somebody, a teacher even?" Susan asked, now with tears running down her cheeks.

"I didn't want anyone to worry," he told them, "and it wasn't so bad, I'm used to it, and besides I probably deserved it."

"How could you say that?" Pansy said, "no child should be abused like that, and you definitely couldn't have ever been bad enough to deserve that severity of punishment."

"Unfortunately I've seen this all too many times when magical child services reports in to me," Madame Bones informed her, "and even more cases go unreported. Wizards tend to still be rather old fashioned, even borderline barbaric in some cases where punishment is concerned for their children, and when we do catch them, it is usually on accident. The child victims are usually too afraid to say anything for fear of getting in even greater trouble, or they feel that they somehow deserve such punishing, often brainwashed with emotional and mental abuse as well. In either case they tend to simply accept the abuse as an inescapable part of life. I suspect that these are the same reasons that Harry chose not to tell any of you."

It was at this moment that Susan went and gave him a big hug, forgetting about his injury until he winced yet again.

She backed away for only just long enough for her aunt to heal him, before immediately going back and hugging him.

"You deserve so much better than that Harry," Susan reassured him, "and we'll make sure you never have to go back to them again."

Harry looked back at her, unable to answer, unable to process everything that had just happened.

"That I'll be making sure of," Madame Bones replied, "what happened to you was criminal and we can take legal action against your relatives for doing that to you, but in the meantime I can make sure that they have custody of you suspended to prevent any further incidents."

"Where would I go though?" Harry asked, "I can't stay at Hogwarts during the summer, and I don't have any other family to go to as far as I know."

"If you would be okay with it, I could have you stay with us here over the summer," Madame Bones said, "I would need to inform Dumbledore, who is your magical guardian, but I would guess that after learning of the extent of your mistreatment that he shouldn't have any objections."

"You mean he can really stay here with us?" Susan asked excitedly.

"I thought you might like that suggestion," her aunt replied smiling before turning back to harry, "you are perfectly welcome to stay here as often and as long as you need to."

Harry still looked incredulous, unable to believe that this was really happening, that he wouldn't have to go back to the dursleys, and that he was wanted here, it seemed too wonderful to be true."

"Thank you," was all he could manage to say.

DUELDUELDUEL

With the mood now slightly different with the revelation about Harry, each of the girls seemed eager to do something extra special for him and show that they really did care about him, as they each conspired over just what they would get him for Christmas.

In the meantime, Madame Bones made an appointment with Dumbledore right before the break ended, after insisting that he meet with her as soon as possible, and had already begun drafting the legal papers that would take away custody from the Dursleys as well as the ones she would need in order to enact a suit against them for child abuse. The worst part of it had been when she had been forced to confront Harry alone and find out more about the extent of it. He had been nervous at first, but he finally opened up and told her everything, the physical, mental, and emotional abuse, the beatings, the abnormal amount of chores to be done, the withholding of meals, all of it. She was shocked, no matter how many times she had encountered child abuse in any form, she never got over it, and it was brought even more home with the fact that this was the boy who was going to be marrying her niece, and also the boy-who-lived who had already sacrificed so much. He didn't deserve to be placed into such a home after his parents' death.

At least she could take solace in the fact that it wouldn't be happening again, she would make sure of it. She made herself the same promise right then and there that if she was given custody of him, which she would be doing her best to obtain, that she would treat him the best way she knew how, the same promise she had made at the funeral of Susan's parents when she was only a baby.

In addition, she also made sure that Harry got a nice gift, it was a practical gift and perhaps most witches or wizards might not have liked it, but she hoped that Harry would.

As for Harry himself, she opted to take just him Christmas shopping, so that he could pick out presents for each of the girls without them being there.

First they had had to go to Gringotts to withdraw some money.

"You might want to get a bank statement on your assets," Madame Bones suggested to him as they entered the bank, "to find out just how much you have. I know that the Potters were quite well off, but I would still recommend it."

He nodded as she approached the desk, "I have Mr. Potter here wishing to withdraw some money, and receive a bank statement on his current assets."

"Of course," said the goblin, "for an account that size you would want to take that up with the bank president directly. I'll take you to him."

They were escorted into a side room, where there was an office to find the bank president, another goblin with a particularly vast smile."

"I am President Snaggletooth," Snaggletooth told them, "what can I do for you?"

"We were wondering if you could get a list of assets for the Potter account and the current account balance," Madame Bones told him.

"Hmm...how about a lot of money?" Snaggletooth suggested.

"Um how much is a lot of money?" Harry asked.

"That would be what you humans like to call, a joke," Snaggletooth chuckled with a weird, inhuman sounding laugh, "now if you would please prick your finger onto this piece of paper so I can authorize that you are indeed Mr. Potter, I can do that for you immediately."

Harry did so, pricking his finger onto a seemingly blank piece of paper until a drop of blood fell onto it causing it to swirl as the blood created small, minute letters in a language he couldn't read, although Snaggletooth seemed able to read it.

"That's all in order then," he told them, the paper then disappearing in his hands, "I can now provide what you requested."

He pulled a paper seemingly out of thin air and then handed it to them.

Since he still had no real concept of the value of magical money, and there were numerous different numbers all across the page, he really had no idea if what the numbers presented there were good or not, but from what he could tell from Madame Bones reaction he could tell that it was a lot."

Madame Bones only said, "well you'll certainly be able to live quite comfortably."

She chose to say nothing further to him, but instead address Snaggletooth again, "we would also like to have a goblin escort us to both his trust vault and his items vault."

"I would be happy to do that myself personally," Snaggletooth told them, "its not every day I get to have Harry Potter in my bank."

They took the cart ride down during which he chose to ask her again about his assets and just what it meant.

"I think it would probably be best if you didn't know just yet," Madame Bones told him, "money tends to do not so desirable things to people in my experience, one reason I suspect that Dumbledore chose the Dursleys in the first place for you to live. Had you grown up with full knowledge of your fame and wealth you might have become a very different person. While it still turned out that it wasn't a good place for you, I can at least say that you still turned out to be the wonderful young man that you are."

He wasn't sure how to reply to such a compliment, but she then said, "its the same reason I've never told Susan about how much her parents left her as well, she's had it bad enough with me as the Head of Magical Law Enforcement, I've tried not to let it go to her head. When you're ready I'll tell you both about how much your parents left you."

He chose not to press her any further, understanding the reasoning behind her choosing to withhold that information, thinking himself of two individuals who had grown up to be spoiled and arrogant from their realizing they could get whatever they wanted, of course his cousin Dudley, and then Draco Malfoy, both born with silver spoons in their mouths. He was grateful that he had not ended up like either of them.

They finally made it to his first vault, the one he recognized as the one that Hagrid had taken him to, where he withdrew as much gold as he could fit into the bag that Madame Bones provided for him.

His next stop brought him to another vault, not full of money, but many various items, many of which he recognized as heirlooms.

There were huge paintings, lots of jewelry, antiques, and other things he had no idea what they were.

"I thought maybe you might find some presents the girls would like," Madame Bones suggested, "that way you could save yourself from having to buy any."

He went through the piles of items, selecting something for each girl, along with some lesser items for Hermione, Hannah, Daphne, and Padma before leaving the vault.

"I sure hope they'll like them," he admitted to her.

"I'm sure they will Harry," Madame Bones told him.

DUELDUELDUEL

When Harry woke up on Christmas morning, he was immediately conscious that someone was tugging on his leg.

"Come on Harry," Susan said gleefully, "its Christmas!"

Normally being informed it was Christmas would have been something that he dreaded, it had always meant before that he would, if he was lucky, be getting more of Dudley's hand me down clothes, while he was forced to watch Dudley open his many presents. The only enjoyment he got out of it was trying to figure out just which present Dudley would end up breaking first.

This time however and for the first time, he was actually excited, excited enough to leap out of bed and follow Susan into the living room where all of the presents were being stored.

"Flopsy already had them sorted into piles," Susan informed him, as she pointed at one large pile, "and that's yours."

While Susan ran off to wake both her aunt and Pansy up, he inspected his pile of wrapped gifts, hardly able to believe any of them could be for him.

Exactly 10 minutes later, Pansy and Madame Bones had both trudged out of bed, and Su had finished exercising.

"It's been a long time since we've had more than the two of us here for Christmas," Madame Bones commented, "usually I've just let Susan open all of her gifts first, but this year I think we had better open one present each in turns."

Everyone agreed, but it soon became a dilemma who should open up a present first.

"Harry how about you open up one first?" Madame Bones suggested.

Still feeling slightly conscientious, he grabbed a present from the pile and looked at it.

"Well don't just stare at it," Su told him after a minute of him still only looking, "find out who its from and open it!"

"Sorry, I've just never opened a present before," he admitted, causing each of the their faces to launch into an instant frown, reminded once again of the poor childhood he had had.

It was indeed the first present he had ever opened, even Dudley's old clothes had never been wrapped, simply handed to him unceremoniously long after everyone else had finished opening their gifts.

With that in mind it was hard for him not to savor the moment a bit, before he looked at the tag and found that it was from Su, no doubt the reason why she had prodded him to open it so quickly.

He began unwrapping it and found it to be a black velvet box which he then opened to find that it was a couple of long daggers like the ones that Su had, long, sleek, and sharp.

"I hope you like them," Su told him, "perhaps it wasn't the best present..."

"They're perfect," he told her gratefully, grateful for the gift itself, but also what it meant to him...somebody actually cared. The oddness of such a gift didn't really matter to him, she could have given him an IOU one present note and he would have still been grateful.

She then came and gave him a hug, before returning back to her seat to then open her present from him,

a bow and a quiver full of arrows that were enchanted to return back into the quiver after using a certain spell. This present then earned another hug from her, elated over such a gift.

Next came Pansy, who opened up the present he had gotten her, a stunning diamond necklace that he had found in his vault and assumed to be either his mother's or more likely some other long dead relative of his.

"Harry, you shouldn't have, this is far too much," Pansy tried to tell him.

"It didn't cost me a knut," he told her, "it must have been a family member of mine's, got it along with all of your presents out of my vault."

"I still think you should have it back," Pansy told him, trying to hand it to him.

"I want you to have it though, it won't do anyone much good still in a vault collecting dust," he told her.

Pansy still looked reluctant, before finally taking it and putting it around her neck.

"Thank you," was all she could manage to say.

"You're welcome," he replied modestly.

"Now its my turn," Susan said, grabbing her present from him, now even more eager after seeing just what Su and Pansy had gotten.

She opened up the small box to find an emerald ring, with a small coat of arms on it.

"No Harry I really can't accept this," Susan told him as she looked at it, "diamond necklaces are one thing, but you have no idea what you just gave me."

She handed it to her aunt, who then also looked shocked.

"I really should have looked at all of your presents more closely," Madame Bones admitted, "do you have no idea what this is?"

She held it up to him, but he still couldn't see what the big deal was.

"Its a Potter family ring, inscribed with your own coat of arms on it. Most major family houses have their own type of rings. Such a ring is only worn by the wife or at least fiance of a Potter."

"I'm so sorry I didn't know," he told her, "I just thought the ring was beautiful and decided that Susan would like it."

"Its all right Harry, you didn't know," Madame Bones told him, "I'm sure we could switch it out with another ring or some other present later."

Harry was about to agree with such an idea, but then he thought about it, after all he was going to be getting married to Susan anyway, what could be the harm?"

"Actually I don't think I would mind if Susan still wants to wear it," he stated, "we are after all getting married anyway and I'll get her another ring once we really do get married."

"Are you sure Harry?" Susan asked, seeming to place great significance upon his words.

"Absolutely," he replied.

She slipped it on her finger before saying, "I'll treasure it always."

Since everyone else had already decided to simply open Harry's gifts to them first, Madame Bones opened hers, although she already knew what it was as she had seen Harry to pick it up in the vault, a gold pen that she already knew its function for, even if Harry didn't.

By pressing a button on it, the pen instantly transformed into a wand.

"These are pretty rare and can be quite valuable," she told them all, "it isn't as effective as a real wand, but can certainly come in handy in the right circumstances."

After that, they started the next round of present opening, beginning with him again, this time more quickly, as he opened in turn, a book on dueling from Susan, and another book on Charms from Pansy, a wand holster from Flitwick, who had also given Su one as well, and various types of candy from Hermione, Daphne, Hannah, and Padma.

Finally he had only two presents left to open, the first one had no note on it, and the other from Madame Bones. He chose to open the one without a note on it first, and after he had opened it, Madame Bones exclaimed, "Oh my, I wonder who could have sent that, that's an invisibility cloak."

He put it around his torso to prove this to find that it had disappeared.

"Wicked," he exclaimed, before spotting a note that had to have also been inside the package. It read:

Your father left this in my possession before he died, its time it was returned to you. Use it well.

"I'm still trying to figure out just who could have sent it," Madame Bones asked after inspecting the note herself to try and see if she could find any clue as to who sent it, before concluding that it was written with a quick quotes quill to prevent the handwriting being identified.

She shook her head before allowing Susan to open her last present, Su, Pansy, and herself already having opened theirs.

Susan squealed once she realized just what it was, a new Nimbus 2000 broom.

"I know you aren't allowed brooms just yet at school," Madame Bones informed her, "but I figured you could at least fly it here at home, during the summer holidays, and when you go back to school next year."

"I can't wait to try flying it," Susan exclaimed happily.

After having had a few minutes for them all to admire Susan's new broom, they turned back to Harry.

"I hope that you like it, you may have already grown sick of it by the time you end up having to use it," Madame Bones confided as he began to unwrap it, which turned out to be a card.

The card read:

To Mr. Harry James Potter, on behalf of the Auror Department in the ministry, we would like to invite you to participate in a young prospective auror program. Each year we have the ability to extend such an invitation to 1 or 2 wizards or witches who we feel could benefit from such training, the same training, at a more basic, easy level, that actual aurors go through in order to become certified. Such training will take place between July 1st and July 28th. Congratulations and we eagerly await your arrival.

"This also applies to you Su if you'd like it," Madame Bones told her, "I just wanted Harry to be the one to open his first, I have yours still with me."

"That would be incredible," Su told her, sounding genuinely excited.

Harry himself was pretty excited, it would be a great opportunity.

"How did you manage to get us in?" Harry asked.

"You forget, I have a bit of sway over the head of the auror department," Madame Bones told them, "seeing as how I'm their boss. At any rate, I would say you two would definitely be the best ones suited for such a program."

After looking around to make sure none of them had any other presents still lying there, Madame Bones concluded, "well I suppose that that's it then."

"Wait we all still have one last present for Harry," Susan told her.

He was caught totally by surprise when each of the girls kissed him on the lips in turn, first Susan, then Pansy, and then finally Su, sending a warm feeling spreading across his body after each quick kiss.

"Merry Christmas Harry," each of the 3 girls said all at once.


	7. Who to blame?

Chapter 7

Who to blame?

Dumbledore was entirely unsure just what the meeting with Madame Bones would be about, but as always he tried to be as prepared as best he could. Madame Bones was a lot more formidable then most people he had to deal with, especially in the Ministry. Most of the time they were dundering fools like Fudge, who were easy to manipulate, but unfortunately were also easy to manipulate by others as well, such as Lucius Malfoy for instance.

Madame Bones however was very much her own person, she didn't allow anyone to take advantage of her, including himself and was smart and powerful enough to accomplish most things she sought out to do. This had earned his respect for her, and he assumed she for him. This mutual respect as well as often having the same goals had allowed for a very profitable relationship for them, as working together they had managed to control a good deal of the Wizengamot, as well as persuade others to their side. The fact that they did not always agree or that she had proven to be unwilling to do what was necessary for the greater good had been something that he had so far been able to get around.

When she came in however, her normally friendly disposition towards him seemed to be in jeopardy, she looked furious, and took no time for pleasantries.

"Dumbledore, I want to know, and I want to know right now, did you or did you not allow Harry Potter to be abused by his relatives?" Madame Bones asked.

To say that he was stunned was an understatement, he was almost never caught off guard or surprised by any information but this certainly stunned him, and his usual unreadable expression slipped as his jaw fell.

"I'm afraid I haven't the faintest idea what you're talking about," he told her truthfully.

"Come on Dumbledore," she told him, not having it, "either you knowingly allowed Harry Potter to be abused by the muggle relatives he was living with, or you totally failed in your role as Harry's magical guardian to check on him and make sure that he was living in a secure and healthy living environment, both I'm having trouble believing that you would do, but those are the only two possibilities I can come up with unless you can provide me with another explanation."

"Perhaps you could explain why you believe that Harry Potter was abused?" Dumbledore asked of her.

She then related to him what Harry had told her about the many times that the Dursleys had apparently abused him, along with the many scars that she had found on his body confirming his story.

"Harry was extremely reluctant to tell me, and he's still worried that something bad might happen to him since he told me," Madame Bones said, "and my niece Susan is very distraught over finding out as well. It's my duty to make sure that the law is being upheld, and this is a very classic example of failure to take the precautionary steps in order to prevent heinous lawbreaking. A helpless child was hurt, and on top of that, a child who was already endured incredible loss. I assume partial responsibility as I feel that if I had made sure that someone from the ministry in child protective services had done regular visits to ascertain the circumstances of Harry's living situation growing up this could have been avoided. Instead I listened to you as you told me that if I did so it would compromise the safety of Harry from those wishing him harm. Under the circumstances I chose to trust you as you promised that you had everything well in hand, and I also was concerned about Harry's place of residence becoming common knowledge. Now I feel that my trust was misplaced."

This was definitely not what he had been expecting, especially an admission of guilt from her. Such admissions he felt showed weakness in most cases, but in this it only made her position stronger, as it also suggested that she could no longer trust him. He realized that this issue was certainly a hot spot for her, and he would need to smooth things over if he was to continue to enjoy a profitable relationship with her.

The problem was however that for once he had no idea how to handle it, he prided himself on knowing everything he needed to know, but he suddenly realized he might not know everything he was supposed to when it came to Harry Potter, which presented an even bigger problem: the reason why he now had to question everything he had been told about Harry Potter.

Despite what Madame Bones might have been led to believe he had been keeping an eye on Harry, or at least so he thought. Harry was far too important a person for him to have simply ignored him for all this time. Even placing him with the Dursleys in the first place had been carefully thought out.

Since he had known that Severus Snape and Lily Evans were childhood friends, who also used to play together with Lily's sister Petunia, and the fact that he knew of nobody else who really knew Petunia, Snape had seemed a logical choice to ask if he was to choose her to be the one to raise Harry. He had then asked him if Lily's sister would be a good person to have Harry be raised by.

Severus had given a glowing review of her, promising that she would be a wonderful foster mother to Harry, despite the fact that she was a muggle. This seemed to be confirmed in part with him finding out that Petunia had a son about Harry's age, and he had hoped that Harry would have a friend and playmate in his cousin growing up.

With Severus' recommendation this seemed to be a good idea, as it would provide Harry with everything he would need in order to become the great savior of the wizarding world he was destined to become. A stable home with a relative that he could use to enlarge upon the protection Harry's mother had given him and keep him safe from any still at large death eaters. It would also be a place away from the influences of the magical world where he would no doubt become too caught up in his fame. Having Harry grow up in an abusive home would never have done anyone good, as even if it might temporarily cause Harry to become even more grateful and more loyal to him in the short term for getting him away from such circumstances, Harry was bound to find out eventually that in fact it was he who had placed him there, and he who would had failed to check on him to make sure he was safe. He'd lose far too much to try something like that, he'd then suddenly have him turning against him, and there was no telling what he might do if he did. He hoped that that hadn't happened already.

"What does Harry think?" he asked her.

"He's just scared and confused, and not sure about anything as I would expect him to be," Madame Bones explained.

Relieved that he wasn't yet blaming him for anything, he tried to smooth things over.

"I wish to assure you, with utmost sincerity that I had no idea about Harry being abused," Dumbledore explained, "I would be willing to swear a wizard's oath to that effect."

She seemed to calm down then as the promise of a wizard's oath if requested seemed to reassure her that he was not in fact complicit in the abuse, but she was at least wise enough to request it.

"If you would please do so Dumbledore I would appreciate it," she told him, "I just want to make sure you weren't involved that's all."

He picked up his wand and said, "I Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore swear upon my magic that I did not know that Harry Potter was being abused, so mote it be."

After doing so, he created a bouquet of flowers which he promptly handed to Madame Bones, demonstrating his ability to still use magic, as well as a small attempt to win back her trust.

She took the flowers, but immediately placed them upon his desk in front of her, and turned back to him, still focused on the situation at hand, and unwilling to let him distract her from purpose.

"Then I'll need to know just how Harry could have been abused like that and have it not noticed, just one impromptu visit would have revealed that Harry was at the very least living in a cupboard under the stairs instead of in a room. Harry tells me that he was moved into a bedroom only shortly before attending Hogwarts, a room that he easily could have moved into at any time had his relatives opted to allow it. Before then however, it wouldn't have taken much to find out the truth. You also promised me that such visits were occurring."

"I was led to believe so as well," Dumbledore admitted, "I am just as shocked by these events as you are, as I had a couple different people I believed to be monitoring Harry. One goes by the name of Arabella Figg, a squib, who lived near Harry. She told me that the family he lived with didn't seem to be a very nice family, but didn't have enough contact with him to be entirely sure. However I chose to disregard this as she did in fact confess she didn't have enough contact to be absolutely certain and even what she did conclude didn't appear to give any real reason to cause any undue alarm. Also I felt that such a vague conclusion was unfounded as it completely disagreed with what I was told by the other person I was using to check on Harry, who conducted monthly visits on my behalf."

"Just who was this person?" Madame Bones demanded.

"I'm afraid that I can't let you know that information until I've conducted an investigation of my own and found out their side of the story," he informed her.

"I think that keeping things to yourself and not letting me do my job is what created this problem in the first place," she reminded him, "as the head of the DMLE I must insist that you give me the name of your informant."

Once again he was unaccustomed to dealing with people who were so demanding of him, usually they were easily controlled either through awe of being around the great Albus Dumbledore, or if necessary through less than legal means. Madame Bones would be impervious to any such means, nor could he see that she would let the issue go so easily.

He finally realized he would be forced to tell her.

"Severus Snape," he confided.

"Severus Snape!" Madame Bones said, her voice raising as loud as he had ever heard it, "you let a former death eater be the one to check on Harry Potter?"

"I trust Severus," Dumbledore told her lamely, "he knew Lily and also knew her sister Petunia, they grew up together as children. I figured that since he already knew Petunia it would be a good idea for him to be the one to check on him regularly. After asking him about Petunia and if he thought she would be a good person for Harry to go live with, which he assured me that it was, he even offered to be the one to check on Harry, as the least he could do for Lily."

"What was he telling you then?" Madame Bones demanded.

"He continually assured me that everything was going fine, and that such visits proved that Harry appeared to be doing well," Dumbledore told her.

"I'm pretty sure that if such visits occurred Harry would have told me, and would have certainly recognized Snape when he came to Hogwarts," Madame Bones concluded, "that can only mean one thing, Snape has been lying to you."

Dumbledore's mind reeled, he had never expected this to happen, it was completely beyond belief. He had thought that Snape could be trusted, this put everything in doubt concerning him.

Yet why had he done it? Why had he lied about conducting such visits? The only way he would know is if he asked him.

"I'll be discussing it with Snape personally," Dumbledore promised.

"I want to be there when you do," Madame Bones announced.

"I would appreciate it if it could be with just me and him," Dumbledore told her, "he's my teacher and I am his boss."

"Yet Harry will be marrying my niece, and anything to do with her I hold myself accountable for," Madame Bones stated.

"I'll let you talk with him directly afterwards," Dumbledore told her, "but there are things of a sensitive nature that I must discuss with him first."

Madame Bones certainly did not seem happy, but finally she acquiesced.

"Very well, I'll at least accompany you then when you go to confront him, which I would assume would be soon if Snape is still gone for the holidays.

"There will be no need," Dumbledore assured her, "Snape hasn't left Hogwarts for any type of holiday or vacation in the entire 10 years he's been here, we should find him in his potions lab I would imagine."

Madame Bones followed him down to the Potions lab and after using his magical glasses to see through the door, he ascertained that Snape was indeed inside.

"All right, you wait here," Dumbledore told her as he opened the door and entered.

"Hello Headmaster," Snape said dryly, "is this about your potion? It won't be ready for another day, I told you it needed time to brew."

"No that's not why I'm here," Dumbledore sighed, "its about something else. Madame Bones just came to visit me and brought me some most troubling news."

"If she's on again about me using griffin's blood in my potions, I already got a permit for that," Snape declared.

"I'm afraid its about something more serious than potion's ingredients, she had Harry Potter stay at her house over the holidays and she found out that Harry has apparently suffered abuse at the hands of his relatives," Dumbledore declared, "yet I am extremely surprised by this since you've always assured me Harry was okay and safe. I even have reason to believe such visits didn't occur at all. If I were to question Harry I'll bet he wouldn't remember ever seeing you before arriving at Hogwarts, am I correct?"

"I never needed to actually see the little bratling," Snape sneered, "just talked with Petunia that's all, and she always told me he was okay."

"I was led to believe that you met with him personally," Dumbledore said, "you said that..."

"Of course I met with him personally," Snape interjected, "never needed to but I did anyway, as per your instructions, then obliviated him of him meeting me just in case another death eater were to use legilimency on him in the future and find out that I knew all along where he lived and didn't tell them. I had to preserve my identity of being a spy, as you no doubt understand. Besides he always seemed fine to me."

"While this does seem a valid point, you apparently did not do a very thorough job in ascertaining his safety," Dumbledore said, "you could have have used legilimency on Petunia or perhaps his uncle or cousin to find out the truth. You certainly have no qualms about doing so to students."

"Petunia and I have an understanding," Snape reassured him, "she did a pretty decent enough job filling me in on what was going on."

"Well Petunia quite obviously lied, he has many scars on his body as a result of obvious abuse," Dumbledore told him.

"So what?" Snape declared, "wouldn't surprise me that Potter's son would be such a klutz, falling down the stairs and such, then make up stories about abuse."

"I have yet to examine him myself but from what Madame Bones has told me they are injuries that could not have occurred simply by accident," Dumbledore said.

"Then perhaps he simply deserved it then," Snape suggested, "he's already proven to have absolutely no regard for the rules, I wouldn't blame his relatives for giving him the occasional punishment now and then to keep him in line."

"Do you really expect me to tell Madame Bones that?" Dumbledore asked, "she's furious and I have to make sure she stays on my side in the Wizengamot."

"Tell her whatever you like, its your problem not mine," Snape told him.

"How about you explain it to her yourself?" Dumbledore suggested, "she's right outside and I go get her at any time and let her hear your excuses."

"Do you really think that's a good idea?" Snape asked, "especially since while telling her there might be...other things I might end up telling her as well, perhaps about you for instance..."

Dumbledore blanched, Snape still had him and he knew it. He wondered not for the first time if he could somehow get control of Snape's mind and erase that particular knowledge...

No, he couldn't, Snape would be expecting that, and he already knew if anything happened to him the information would be leaked anyway. Snape had contingencies set up. He'd just have to find a way to keep Madame Bones happy, as well as Snape not bothered by her.

"I did it for you anyway," Snape said.

"What do you mean?" Dumbledore asked.

"You wanted a savior of the wizarding world totally devoted to you, and I did that for you," Snape declared, "I've read his mind, all he feels for you now is gratitude for getting him out of that situation, and he'll do anything you ask now. He needed to be abused, to learn to deal with pain, and being alone, he'll need that in order to survive his destiny."

"Yet at what cost Severus?" Dumbledore asked.

"You're actually asking me about the cost?" Snape replied coyly, "you've done a great deal yourself all for the greater good. Your hands are even more bloody than mine."

"How come you never told me though what you were doing?" Dumbledore queried.

"Plausible deniability," Snape responded, "you never needed to know, and if ever questioned under oath you'd be able to deny knowledge of it and be telling the truth."

"What will happen though once Harry finds out that it was me who put him there, he would be right to assume that I knew about it and did nothing?" Dumbledore asked, "he certainly wouldn't forget that and what about all the other people who might also then have reason to be mad at me, I can't simply obliviate them all?"

"You're the great Albus Dumbledore," Snape sneered, "he'll remember you as the man who rescued him, not the person who helped create the problem of his childhood, besides surely you can control him with other ways."

It was a poor excuse for allowing abuse to take place, even encourage it, one that if this were a story being written over and over again in various ways in which he were the one to encourage such abuse in order to make Harry more loyal to him, it would never hold up. Harry was bound to have figured it out sooner or later from someone, and then what? Of course the logical conclusion would be that Harry would then rebel against him and he would lose his savior of the wizarding world. He would have to be really stupid to try something like that.

Snape continued with, "besides I was abused when I was a child and look at me, I turned out okay."

Again a terrible reason to encourage abuse, but then again Snape had always been incredibly twisted in his morals.

"You've put me into quite a predicament," Dumbledore told him, "if I could get away with it, I'd fire you as I should have done a long time ago. You've created far more headaches than you've prevented, and plenty of angry and unhappy teachers, students, and parents because of your blatant favoritism and more then questionable reasons for punishment."

"Yet you and I both know you won't fire me, you can't as long as I still have that dirt on you," Snape answered, "even if you could or somehow get the school board involved you know what will happen. Lucius Malfoy would have the rest of the board vote to keep me. I'm not without friends in high places. So I'll tell you the same thing I told you when I first started working for you, you're better off with me working for you than against you."

Dumbledore hated being controlled like this. No one else had ever managed to successfully blackmail him before until Snape, yet since Snape still could bring so much to him as a spy and as an extremely accomplished potions master he had decided that being blackmailed wouldn't be so bad as long as he kept the ministry off of his back and kept him employed. Now not for the first time he regretted making such an assumption.

"What would you have me tell Madame Bones?" Dumbledore asked resignedly.

"Tell her you lied and always knew about the abuse, whatever, just get her off my back," Snape sneered, being entirely unhelpful with a ridiculous suggestion.

With Snape no longer being cooperative, Dumbledore chose to take his leave but not before leaving a parting quip:

"You win today Snape, but someday I'll find a way to beat you."

"Good luck with that," Snape said, waving him away as he got back to work on the potion he had been working on.

Using the few precious seconds he had between going toward the door and opening it to explain to Madame Bones, he came up with a plan, and he hoped it would work.

"Well?" she asked as he came out.

"Severus has been proven by me to have been telling the truth all along," Dumbledore answered, "he visited both with his Aunt Petunia, and also saw Harry, who wouldn't recognize him since he always wore an invisibility cloak and watched from the window, feeling that that was the best way to make sure that Harry was being treated well without anyone knowing he was there being monitored. He however noticed no signs of abuse."

"I would still like to talk with him though," Madame Bones asked, not completely willing to accept such a story.

"I'm afraid that Severus is still very distraught at learning that he may have failed to catch such abuse, he's not in any condition to talk with you right now," Dumbledore explained, "nor do I think it would be worth it for you to trouble him further until the case against the Dursleys you are no doubt drafting is brought to court. I really would like to save my potions master any extra suffering and feelings of guilt then he is already feeling."

This was only a temporary solution but would hopefully give him time to come up with a better one to avoid Snape being scrutinized for at least awhile.

Madame Bones certainly still looked like she might still demand to see him, which would then force him to take more drastic action against her when she finally relented, or so it appeared at first.

"Very well since you've proven to be cooperative I'll hold off on his interrogation on one condition: I want you to sign over guardianship of Harry to me," Madame Bones replied.

"You know I can't do that," Dumbledore informed her, feeling like he was now stuck between a rock and a hard place, "if I were to transfer guardianship over to you than you would get the opportunity to then control Harry's control of his family seats in the Wizengamot."

He assumed that she was trying to make a power play and get greater control in the Wizengamot and in politics and try to weaken his own position. He also could not allow this to occur, and he would now be forced to take drastic actions anyway, but fortunately her next statement proved that this was not what she truly wanted.

"Then I'll allow you to retain magical guardianship but turn over custody of him to me," Madame Bones answered, "I just want Harry away from the Dursleys and safe with me. Susan is obviously quite fond of him, and honestly so am I, I couldn't hope for a better young man for Susan. I feel that it would be a good place for him."

He breathed another sigh of relief, she evidently just was more concerned for Harry than she was for her position in politics.

"Agreed," Dumbledore said, clutching the document and quill she gave him and looked it over before signing it with a flourish.

"Harry Potter is now in your custody," he said.

Author's Note: Okay, there you have it. Its been interesting to read of numerous people's assumptions on how Dumbledore would react to the abuse, and even more interesting to know that they were all wrong in what I was planning. Having evil Dumbledore allow, encourage or even force the Dursleys to abuse him is incredibly cliché so of course I can't blame anyone for thinking that that was what he would do, but it would of course result in the exact same problem in stories where this takes place, Harry finds out and revolts against Dumbledore and whoever else was involved. The evil genius that they are trying to cast Dumbledore as I find hard to believe would make such an oversight. Canon Dumbledore I find equally difficult to believe did not know about such abuse. This is my own idea of explaining how such abuse could have taken place without Dumbledore knowing about it or failing to have someone check on him as I would imagine anyone with an invested interest in someone as Dumbledore so clearly does in Harry would do, much less someone who was actually concerned about the safety of a child under some degree of their protection. Hope you liked it.


	8. A New Plan

Author's Note: I apologize for last chapter, I feel that there was information missing that I couldn't figure out exactly how to fit into the chapter especially regarding Madame Bones' actions. Some of you noticed for example that Madame Bones came across as rather weak despite a strong, forceful beginning in handling Dumbledore. This chapter I hope explains why she acted the way she did. Also as far as why Dumbledore can't simply obliviate, kill, or otherwise prevent Snape from leaking information about him, that will be later in the story. There's good reason for Dumbledore not wanting to try anything but for the purposes of the story I can't divulge that information yet. Thanks for reading.

Chapter 8

A New Plan

Madame Bones left Dumbledore to immediately file the form for custody of Harry, and while on the way out she reflected on just how the conversation had gone.

She felt she had handled it poorly, and she knew exactly why, while accusing Dumbledore of many things, she couldn't help but feel responsible herself, all the while thinking of what she could have done differently. She had failed that boy who was right now in her home with her niece. It hadn't been herself originally that had agreed to allow Dumbledore to handle Harry Potter's well being and safety while keeping the ministry out of the loop. That had been the previous Head of the DMLE, but when she did get the job she had done nothing to change that, trusting that Dumbledore knew what he was doing. He had seemed so wise, so capable, he had always seemed that way when she was at Hogwarts...

Now she knew that that trust was unfounded, at least as far as Harry was concerned, but was she any better than him? She could have done something, she should have done something. Yet she was reminded once again that she could not change the past, only try to make things better now. She promised herself once again that she would take care of and protect him to the best of her ability.

She had at least managed to get Dumbledore to talk, usually he was pretty close lipped about anything he did not want to reveal and he certainly wasn't happy about telling her anything. She probably could have gotten more out of him since she felt like there was still more he was not telling her, particularly when it came to Snape, but she had chosen to let the matter go, at least for now, as she had been trying harder to get him to sign custody over to her, and she wanted the leverage to get him to do so. Whatever reason Dumbledore had however for delaying her talking with Snape, she was sure that it wasn't because of any remorse on the man's part, even she had heard of just how vindictive Snape was. That would just have to wait, however, for another day, she had to focus more on Harry first.

She hesitated going to file the paperwork as she could have just handled it all herself, but it would be technically illegal for her to accept her own adoption, and she felt strongly that the person that would be handling it could be trusted.

When she finally got to child protective services, run by just one woman, owing to the small amount of magical children in Britain, she approached said woman, Becky Fawcett, a middle aged woman who had a daughter currently in Hogwarts a few years older than Susan.

"Becky," Madame Bones informed her holding out the custody form, "I need you to sign this for me."

"You know your signature would work just as well as mine," Becky said.

"Not if I am the one taking permanent custody," Madame Bones announced.

Becky seemed surprised, but grinned nonetheless, "I had no idea that you were planning to adopt again."

"Its not a complete adoption, just custody," Madame Bones declared, "a formal adoption would conflict with a previous contract that is in place on behalf of the child."

While she didn't tell Becky, the reason why she had chosen to allow Dumbledore to retain guardianship was so that Harry would still be eligible to marry Susan, as the particular contract that had been signed between Harry's parents and Susan's would become null and void under such conditions. She had only originally asked for full guardianship because she knew that Dumbledore wouldn't allow it. He enjoyed far too much being Harry's representative in the Wizengamot for that. It was a calculated move on her part to ask for it however, knowing that if she threatened to take that from him, that he would be more likely to hand over only custody of Harry to her, and feel like he had still kept what he really wanted, while she got what she really wanted.

She handed over the contract to her, after which Becky began looking it over before her eyes widened.

"This form is for Harry Potter," Becky stated.

"That is correct," Madame Bones agreed.

"I was informed that the Harry Potter case wasn't supposed to be dealt with by the ministry," Becky answered.

"That position has been changed in light of recent events," Madame Bones answered.

"What kind of events?" Becky queried, now even more curious, "is it anything I need to concern myself with?"

Madame Bones thought about it for a moment, while she would have liked to keep Harry's situation a secret, she realized that since she would be the one taking custody of him, she would be legally obligated to leave it in the hands of someone else as it would provide a conflict of interest. She wouldn't ignore such a law either even if she was sure she could get away with it, every law that she expected everyone else to follow also applied to her.

"While I would like to handle this matter personally, yet since it would be a conflict of interest for me, I'll allow you to do your job and take over the Harry Potter case. Even as your boss I'll expect you to treat me the same way you would with anyone, is that understood?"

"I'll do my best," Becky stated, "so what makes you think that Harry Potter's living situation should be changed and placed into your custody?"

"I would appreciate it if you would swear a wizard's oath not to reveal the following information to anyone," Madame Bones requested.

"Very well," Becky said, now looking even more interested about just what all of this was about, and raising up her wand, "I Becky Fawcett do solemnly swear up on my magic that I shall never reveal the following information I am about to hear to anyone, so mote it be."

After making her oath, Madame Bones quickly cast an anti-listening charm before beginning. It was a risk that she was telling Becky, but she felt that she could be trusted, a model employee and known to be very trustworthy and fiercely loyal to the light side, her husband had even been killed during the first war with Voldemort.

She told her everything that she knew for certain, that Harry Potter was abused and mistreated by his Muggle relatives, and that such abuse wasn't reported. Everything else, including the stuff about Severus Snape's involvement she left out, as even she was skeptical about Dumbledore's explanation, and she would be getting to the bottom of it, just in her own way.

However Becky handled everything well, she obviously had had cases of abuse in the past, even though she was obviously still abhorred by it anyway.

Madame Bones showed pictures of Harry's back, where the highest concentration of scars were visible, along with her relating some examples of abuse that Harry had shared.

"I'll be sure to keep all of this secret," Becky declared, "and I'll be looking into it, you can count on it. In the meantime however I see no reason not to grant you custody of the boy, following an investigation as to the accusation of abuse inflicted by his previous guardians, and making sure that you are providing a safe and proper environment for him."

Madame Bones nodded, she had at least undergone the last part back when she had taken custody of Susan after her parents were killed, and knew what to expect and what would be required.

"Very well then, in the meantime I'll make sure that the documents you've provided are kept extra safe and not here as an added precaution," Becky continued as her voice than faltered as her emotions got the best of her previously business like tone, "and I'm so sorry that this could have happened to Harry Potter, if any child deserved not to be treated in such a way... Well I'm at least glad he'll be with you now, you seem to have been such a good parent to Susan after her parents died..."

She wiped a tear from her eyes, and Madame Bones conjured up a tissue for her and gave it to her. She knew that Becky and Susan's mother had been friends at Hogwarts, so she could see why it might have affected her so.

Now however she felt like she had made the right choice trusting Becky and by the time she left, she felt that she would have everything in hand.

Apparating home after that, Madame Bones quickly found Susan, Harry, and the other girls in the library currently trying to finish some homework that had been given to them over the break.

"Well?" Susan asked as soon as she saw her.

Madame Bones smiled, "I've been given custody."

Susan ran over to hug her, which she returned before beckoning for Harry to give her one as well.

He did so reluctantly, looking nervous not that she could blame him based on his past, but he did so anyway.

The hug was brief but it still ignited once again within her the maternal instinct that she was already beginning to develop for him.

"I'm so sorry Harry," she whispered to him.

"Sorry for what?" he asked.

"For failing you and having you live with the Dursleys all that time," she answered,

"How could it be your fault?" he asked, "and because of you I'll never have to be with the Dursleys again."

Glad that he bore her no ill will, she still promised herself that she would somehow make it up to him.

DUELDUELDUELD

The next day the 4 students got aboard the Hogwarts express and went back to Hogwarts, and while Harry still felt strange about suddenly finding himself living with the Bones, he had to admit it was way nicer than living with the Dursleys. Susan and he were already great friends, and Madame Bones once he had gotten to know her seemed really nice.

It seemed things were finally seeming to settle down and get good for him, no more Dursleys, no more must win duels for him, no more trolls to fight, all he was expected to do now was do his homework, practice dueling, and enjoy time with his friends.

Of course such a life would always be too boring for Su. She wanted action, danger, thrills, adventure, and she kept begging him to explore the castle with them. Finally he relented and agreed to go with her, along with Susan and Pansy one late night, perhaps an hour before curfew where most students and teachers had already turned in for the night.

They went through much of the castle and then started making their way up a certain staircase and Harry suddenly realized where Su was going.

"Please tell me you're not trying to go where I think you're going," he asked.

"Hold on," Susan said, realizing where they must be headed by now too, "you're trying to go to the 3rd floor corridor aren't you?"

"I just want to check it out, just one quick peek," Su begged.

Susan looked extremely reluctant and so did Pansy, and once Su realized things weren't going to go her way, she grabbed Susan's wand from her hand.

"Hey!" Su yelled.

"Guess you've got to catch me first," Su said, running away up the stairs, followed by a slower Susan, not used to doing as much running.

Harry ran after her as well, but he had never been able to catch Su either, she could have outran any student in a race if she was in his muggle primary school, including the boys.

He finally caught up to her however in front of a door, and grabbed Susan's wand back.

"Sorry to ruin your fun," he declared.

"I got you right where I wanted didn't I?" Su grinned, and he suddenly realized that they were now inside the 3rd floor corridor, right at the end. Pansy and Susan came up huffing and puffing right after him.

At least the 3rd floor didn't seem all that interesting, it was entirely vacant, and the one thing that might have been of interest to Su, the door they were now standing in front of, appeared to be locked.

"Alohomora," Su yelled at the lock just then, instantly dispelling his relief.

The lock gave way and Su opened up the door.

None of them could resist peering inside, and were shocked to see that they were staring at 3 somethings, or possibly just one something, 3 gigantic dogs heads that immediately began snarling and snapping at them.

Susan and Pansy both screamed in terror, but fortunately none of the dogs heads could fit through the door, which would have made him wonder just how it had gotten inside in the first place had he not been so busy trying to shield and protect both Susan and Pansy in case one of the dogs heads somehow managed to fit through anyway.

Su cast a spell at it and managed to keep it at bay long enough for her to close and lock the door again.

"What on earth was that?" Susan asked breathlessly.

"A cerberus," Pansy informed her, still shaken up herself, "a giant 3 headed dog, my dad tried to buy one once as a guard dog."

"Well whatever it is or what its doing here, we might want to get out of here," Susan said.

He was inclined to agree with her, but then Su suddenly stopped her, "are you mad? He's so cool! I was starting to think this school might be getting boring again, but obviously somebody's been holding out on us, a cerberus right here, I want to fight him."

She seemed eager to open up the door to do just that, but he grabbed her before she could.

"Come on Harry, it'll be fun," Su begged, "I promise we'll stay behind the doorway where its safe, and we won't permanently hurt it, I just want to see if we can knock all of its heads out or something."

"You've got to be joking," Susan said, "you actually want to fight that thing?"

Before Su had a chance to reply however, they heard the sound of footsteps coming towards them. They all ran and crouched behind a pillar, him and Su, and then Pansy and Susan on the other side.

Looking at the person they were surprised to find that it was Quirrell.

He appeared to be talking to himself, and replying as if somebody was talking to him, but from what they could tell he was alone.

"We'll get through this time master, the stone will be yours soon," he said just loud enough for him to hear, then paused for a second as if someone was replying to him, before he said, "no one has spotted us on my way here, I was most careful, the portraits have all been frozen."

He paused for a moment longer than said something else in a voice too low for him to understand.

Quirrell then opened up the door, which immediately caused the cerberus inside to begin barking again, and Quirrelll tried doing what Su was going to do, stand behind the door and subdue it somehow. From his vantage point he couldn't tell exactly what Quirrell was using, but it appeared not to be effective and suddenly there was a howl of pain as Quirrell fell down on one knee, before having to force the cerberus back and lock the door.

"Yes master I know I have failed," Quirrell said, seeming to be begging, "just one more chance, I know I can get Hagrid to tell us what we need to know."

He paused for another moment longer before finally getting up and walking away from them, and as he passed failed to notice them as he was currently still looking down at an injured arm with blood currently seeping from the wound.

"What was that all about?" Susan asked after he had gone.

"I don't know but I'm not going to stick around to find out," Pansy declared, leading the way back down the corridor, trying to be slow enough to keep from catching up to Quirrell.

After they finally got down again, however, they all voiced aloud what had just happened.

"I think its fairly obvious," Susan said, "Dumbledore has left something in the school to be guarded by that cerberus, and Quirrell wants it."

"You would think that Dumbledore would be smart enough to hide valuable objects away from school children, as well as dangerous monsters guarding them," Pansy commented, "that's just asking for trouble, some reckless student is bound to try to find out just why the 3rd floor corridor is forbidden."

She looked pointedly at Su, who she wasn't happy with into tricking them into following her right now, but Su still seemed too keyed up by the events they had just gone through to notice.

"It seems simply casting spells at it doesn't appear to work," Su stated, "I wonder if physical weapons would harm it, like maybe if I got my daggers and I..."

"If you had tried to attack it like you were going to do, you would have ended up like Quirrell and gotten bitten or probably worse," Susan reminded her.

"Well there's always a little risk in every endeavor," Su countered.

"I think we need to go tell Dumbledore what we found at any rate, I'm sure he'll be interested to know about Quirrell," Pansy suggested.

He and Susan both agreed.

"Well if we tell him that means admitting that we were in the 3rd floor corridor where we weren't allowed," Su concluded.

"Better than having one of his teachers be a potential thief," Susan replied, "besides we'll just tell him it was all your idea."

She grinned wickedly and forced the rest of them to follow her to Dumbledore's office.

They didn't know the password, but fortunately Dumbledore was only just coming down.

"Ah, what can I do for you?" he asked.

"We were just wondering if you were trying to protect anything on the 3rd floor corridor?" Harry asked.

Dumbledore showed just a twinge of surprise before saying, "what makes you think that?"

While still slightly afraid of being punished, they related to him the story of seeing Quirrell there trying to get past the cerberus.

"So if you really do have anything there I think you might want to move it since Quirrell obviously knows where it is and he should be able to get past whatever defenses you have eventually," Harry finished, "also you might want to do something about your teacher."

"There's nothing to worry about," Dumbledore informed them, "I have everything well in hand."

"Well that's reassuring," Su said sarcastically.

"I think you should have a little faith in me, and I'll also expect you to show me more respect young lady," Dumbledore scolded her, "now as for the rest of you, I don't want to hear any more of this, this does not concern any of you. If I find that you are trying to investigate further, or interfere with any of my plans I shall have to give you all punishments."

Dumbledore left them there, with all of them extremely annoyed with him.

"Well what do we do now?" Pansy asked.

"Its quite simple, we investigate further," Su told her.

"You heard what Dumbledore said, he said that he had everything handled and that we would be punished if we tried to interfere," Susan said.

Harry knew that Susan had never been one for rule breaking, something that she had inherited from her aunt, while Pansy on the other hand usually had the same thinking. As for himself, he had learned long ago from the Dursleys that he would be punished if he was either good or bad, and so had learned to at least try not to get caught, and at least break rules that needed to be broken. The no meals for a week punishment for example. He would have starved to death had he followed that rule, but fortunately learned to slowly accumulate food that would not be noticed missing, and then hide it in his cupboard in preparation for those times.

Su of course, would break every rule in Hogwarts for an adventure, who tried to argue with the other two girls to no avail. Finally it appeared she dropped the subject, even though Harry seemed suspicious why she had given up so quickly

DUELDUELDUELD

Meanwhile Lucius Malfoy was currently still pondering how to deal with the Potter situation. It was a complete disaster for him. Now Parkinson seemed to have fallen out of his graces so much that he was now in talks with Dumbledore. Indeed, several of the last few bills he had tried to enact were rejected by Parkinson, bills that he had supported before. He simply could not allow this occur, but the only way he could see to get him back over to his side was get Parkinson's daughter back, and Parkinson himself seemed to think that his failure to do so was a sign of weakness on his part, or at least he alluded to that by making several snide comments about the subject whenever he was around him.

He also realized he could no longer rely upon his idiot of a son to handle the situation, he would need to deal with it personally, yet exactly how he wasn't sure. The obvious and easy answer would be too simply kill him but that would be hard to pull off as well. It would be too difficult to try anything at Hogwarts with Dumbledore there, so that meant he would need to try to get him while he was gone for summer break, which provided additional problems as he still did not know where he was. He'd invested a considerable amount of time and money trying to find Harry Potter's location for the last 10 years to no avail, and he couldn't see how that would change now. Yet as he was beginning to despair, he was alerted to the presence of Nott just outside his anti-apparition wards on his home.

Allowing him to continue, and waving off the additional defenses, he opened the door for him, and Nott shook his hand.

"Lord Malfoy," he said respectfully.

"What brings you here?" Lucius asked in a polite tone, always having respected Nott for his dueling prowess. He was in fact the wizard who had trained his nephew Theodore Nott.

"I do believe I've finally found what we've been looking for all this time," Nott admitted.

Lucius caught his breath, scarcely able to believe that he was referring to what he was hoping he was referring to.

"I've found out where Harry Potter is going to be staying over the summer," Nott claimed.

"How did you come by this information after so long?" Lucius demanded.

"I don't know where he was staying in the past, but I know where he is going to be at least for a portion of the summer," Nott replied, "as you know I'm part of the international dueling committee and I've learned that Potter is planning to compete in the competition next summer."

"So," Lucius said, "there's bound to be tight security for something like that, and tons of wizards, all of them very capable duelists around him, it would be suicide to try something there."

"Normally it would be, if it weren't for the fact that I managed to get myself put in charge of security for the event."

He grinned maliciously which caused Lucius to adopt a grin of his own.

"I can have the boy assigned to stay in a location far away from most of the other competitors and also put up the various shields and protective spells myself so as not to arouse suspicion should the building be inspected yet also be very easy for me to take down when the time comes. The competition should last 3 weeks which should give us more than adequate time for us to pull it off.

"You have done me a great service," Lucius bowed, "I'll see to it that 500 thousand galleons is deposited into your account and another 500 thousand is deposited after the deed is done."

They both then gathered together to discuss just what the plan would be.

DUELDUELDUELD

Deep into January, Draco got another visit from his father in the Slytherin common room.

"Hello father," Draco said, bowing respectfully.

"Hello Draco, I expect that your schoolwork has been up to par for a Malfoy?" his father asked.

"It has father," Draco stated.

"I am however greatly concerned that you have shown no inclination to change the Parkinson situation," his father said.

Draco blanched, he really hadn't.

"Its just that Potter is so good a duelist, nobody can beat him," Draco argued, "after what happened with Nott I can't get anyone to agree to duel him."

"Draco, come now, surely you must have realized by now that there is more than one way to get Parkinson back," his father claimed.

"The only other way I've thought of is if Potter were killed in some way," Draco admitted.

"Desperate times call for desperate measures," his father stated, "I had hoped at first before you arrived at school that he might become an ally to you and the Malfoy family but since he has rejected the offer he is now nothing more than a liability. He must be terminated."

"You wish me to kill him father?" Draco asked, not capable of hiding the shock from his voice. Dueling him was one thing, but murder? He didn't like Potter but he didn't think he could simply outright kill him."

"What if I am caught? I'll be expelled," Draco claimed.

"That is why I will be taking care of it for you," his father replied, "he is too safe here at Hogwarts but I have found my way around it."

"What is it father?" Draco asked.

"Nothing for you to be concerned with," his father chided him, "let's just say I've recently learned where he'll be staying over the summer, and I'll be taking care of him there personally."

"Personally?" Draco questioned, his father never did anything personally, for him to take such a risk meant he wanted no screw ups, and regarded it to be of utmost importance. He had had no idea his father felt that strongly.

His father soon turned to asking him about his schoolwork again, and Carloman, the invisible man, took the opportunity to report it to Dumbledore.

…."so you see Dumbledore," Carloman continued with what he heard, "he's evidently found out where Harry Potter is going to be living from now on."

"This is why I should have been the one to manage Harry Potter's affairs," Dumbledore grumbled aloud, assuming at once that it had been something that Madame Bones had done for Harry Potter's new living situation to be known so easily "fool of a woman Madame Bones, I manage to keep his location a secret for 10 years and she can't even manage a month! Well now I suppose I shall just have to tell her her house is compromised and.. Wait did you say that Lucius Malfoy would be handling it personally?"

"He did say that," Carloman said.

Dumbledore couldn't resist such an opportunity, he had been been trying for years to get Lucius Malfoy nailed for something, this was his chance. He wouldn't be telling her anything, instead he'd find out himself where she lived and have look outs set up outside where they couldn't be spotted and wait for his nemesis to come to him. It would be perfect, a plan that Madame Bones would never approve of if she knew but a perfect plan nevertheless. When Lucius Malfoy finally came, he'd be waiting for him."

Currently in the exact same castle unbeknownst to him, however, Madame Bones calmly opened up the potion's lab door and walked inside, and spoke to the man she found there:

"Hello Snape," she said.


	9. Evil's Afoot

Author's Note: this is a revised version of the last chapter. I apologize to all of my readers for the first version, and hopefully you will continue reading. I have a beta now to point out the major glaring problems in each chapter so hopefully this will not happen again. I would also like to thank the many people who took the time to review and help me out. Not everyone's idea will be implemented, but many will. You may also skip down to the section breaker for the new part of the story, the beginning being mostly unchanged. It should read SECTIONBREAKER. Also I will be explaining in this chapter just why Dumbledore is forced to trust Snape so much and let him get away with stuff. Thanks.

Chapter 9

The End of First Year

(Beta Read by Slicerness)

Snape certainly looked surprised to see her, and it took a second before he replied back to her.

"Hello Amelia," He replied haltingly, "Do you require my services?"

"Cut the garbage Snape." Madame Bones answered, not falling for a second his pretended ignorance as to the reason behind her visit with him.

"I think its a valid question, I am a potions master, after all." Snape countered sarcastically.

"You and I both know I'm not here to get a potion from you, or anything other than finding out exactly how you, as Dumbledore claims, 'visited' Harry Potter constantly growing up, yet never noticed any signs of abuse nor actually let your presence be known to Harry."

"I believe Dumbledore should have already told you everything you need to know." Snape said, still trying to sell her a big fat pile of garbage.

"I'd like to hear it from you though." She pressed, "Dumbledore said I could talk to you later when it was closer to the trial for Harry's relatives. Well, its later and its closer, so speak."

"I think I had better speak to Dumbledore before I say anything else. Besides, I'm not legally obligated to tell you anything unless I'm being charged with something, am I being charged with something?" He asked.

He was certainly making things difficult for her, she had been hoping that he would talk already, but it appeared he wasn't so easily rattled. This would call for the big dogs.

"How about I charge you with obstruction of an official ministry of magic investigation?" She suggested.

"You have no proof I've done anything wrong,. Snape claimed.

"Not for this, no, but while you sat idly twiddling your thumbs after Dumbledore talked to you, I've spent that entire time collecting statements of wrong and illegal activities that you've committed during your tenure as a professor. I've got enough evidence to have you at the very least fired and prevented from ever finding employment as a teacher or any other profession. Give me one good reason why I shouldn't do so?"

Snape looked visibly upset, but he sneered anyway, "You'll find I'm not without protection, do you really think I would act the way I do without powerful allies. Dumbledore for example, and the school board will never have me fired. Many have tried and failed and you'll just be the next in a long line of them. I'll be Potion's Professor for a long time yet.

_'What a baby.'_ She thought. Her research on him had revealed that he was at least not lying on that account. No matter what she found lacking in Dumbledore's character, especially in giving out undeserved second chances, she felt even he would have fired him by now if it weren't for something holding him back still as of yet unknown to her. The school board on the other hand she had known for a long time was in Lucius Malfoy's pocket, so thee was little mystery on that front.

"December 5thlast year." Madame Bones said, pulling out a folder, "I have a sworn affidavit from 4 different students that testify that you used an Avada Kedavra curse on a rat."

"Its not an illegal curse to be used on animals." Snape claimed.

"Normally it would be, but not for a convicted criminal." Madame Bones revealed, "That's in violation of your parole, Severus Snape."

"I've already been cleared of those charges." He claimed, and then scoffed, "And what good would that do anyway, a misdemeanor like that would only require a paltry sum of 50 Galleons or 3 days in the minimal exposure ward in Azkaban."

"Its good thing then, that I have an entire stack of those 'misdemeanors'..." Madame Bones claimed, presenting said stack in her arms, "With that many misdemeanors I could fine you until you're broke or in jail for perhaps 6 months at least, and that's only with just a few weeks of digging with almost no effort, all I had to do was go back and check the mountain of complaints filled out. Imagine what I could find once I start really digging? By that time your job would have to be given to someone else in your absence. You've been smart enough not to do anything really bad but those misdemeanors really add up."

"So that's your plan is it?" He said, "You'll have to do better than that. As soon as I'm let out I'll have my old job back."

"You're right, it is only 6 months," Madame Bones said slowly, "or longer if I manage to find anything else on you, and believe me, I'm sure you've got plenty more infractions for me to find. 10 years of this kind of behavior really adds up, and then I can start adding time for repeat offenses too. Who knows how long you could actually serve. However, it won't be all bad, I've got some sway with the prison system, me being their boss and all, and they've already agreed to make sure you have a cellmate, an old school friend of yours I'm sure you still remember, Sirius Black."

Now that finally got him, as his face contorted with rage, "How dare you? You can't put me with that animal."

"On the contrary, I can do whatever I want, it's well within my scope of abilities to arrange for you to be sharing a cot with Sirius. I'm sure you will have plenty to catch up on." She said flippantly.

Snape appeared to be grinding his teeth down to the bone as he finally said, "If I tell you I want immunity from any previous crimes or misdemeanors."

"How about I wave the jail time but you agree to resign effective immediately?" Amelia suggested. While she thought Snape was a horrible person and an even more horrible teacher, he was still a valued potions master and she would prefer to see such skills used, far away from children however. Besides, it would mean a mountain of paperwork to be filled out for each demeanor, which would probably take as long to fill out as it would for Snape to be in prison.

Snape did not look happy but he finally relented, "I want it in writing."

She happily pulled out just such a contract for him to sign, already anticipating this.

He signed the document using a quill she provided for him, and then after she demanded that he swear under wizard's oath that all that he said to her was the truth, and him finally complying, he began to tell his side of things.

"I admit to never checking on the Potter boy, I never even saw him, although I can say that I did visit with his aunt who did indeed assure me that the boy was all right, I never inquired further."

"Did you have any suspicions of any abuse?" Madame Bones asked.

He tried to shake his head no, but the effects of the oath prevented him from doing so and he was forced to come out with it, "I did have strong suspicions, yes."

"Why did you not inquire further?" She asked pressed, her eyes narrowed.

"Out of spite, I hated the boy's father and so decided that any abuse rendered on his son was justly deserved." Snape confessed.

At that moment she felt a strong desire to jinx him into some sort of small animal to be stepped on for doing such a thing, but she somehow managed to maintain her composure.

"Did Dumbledore know of your suspicions?" She queried.

"No, he didn't know until I told him several weeks ago when you last visited him." Snape replied.

"Why didn't Dumbledore tell me all of this after he talked with you? she asked.

" I asked him not to." he confessed.

"The reason being?" she asked.

"I think its fairly obvious why." He said snidely, and since the answer really was obvious, since he was a big fat jerk to a poor little orphan boy and Harry Potter to boot, it certainly would make a lot of people angry with him and want him punished in some way, herself included. She was halfway tempted to go back on her deal and have him placed into a lion's den with no wand, but she knew a deal was a deal, and it was in writing.

"Why didn't Dumbledore tell me the truth himself?" She then asked.

"I decline to answer." He replied slowly.

She sighed and said, "If you aren't going to honor our deal completely I shall simply have to put you with Black and..."

Snape stopped her there and continued, "Because I convinced him to."

"How did you convince him?" She asked.

Snape certainly seemed to be struggling, trying to avoid saying anything untruthful and fighting the vow he had made, and seemed about ready to blurt it out when the door behind them slammed open.

"Just what is the meaning of this?" Dumbledore asked, surveying the both of them, "Madame Bones, I do believe that this is my school and I would appreciate it if you had informed me of your visit."

"As the head of magical law enforcement I'm not legally obligated to announce my presence to you." She answered easily.

"While that may be true, I would like to know just why you are here now, with my potion master, after you had already agreed with me that you would not interrogate him just yet?" he asked.

"We agreed that I would not interrogate him then, but later and closer to the trail. It is now later and closer to the trial, and I am legally allowed to interrogate individuals who I believe may be harboring information concerning illegal activity."

"Such interrogation cannot be done so by a teacher in their place of business unless first having been informed by the current Headmaster." He said, trying to throw the law back at her, but she was once again prepared, having anticipated this possibility.

SECTIONBREAKERSECTIONBREAKERSECTIONBREAKERSECTIONB REAKER

"Which is why I had Snape sign a contract along with his resignation, so he's no longer is under your employ." She announced.

"Dumbledore looked over at Snape, no was doubt wondering just why he had done so, and then he turned over at her again and said, "Very well, but I now declare this interrogation over."

"You have no right to do that." She told him firmly, turning towards the aging Headmaster. "Now I would suggest you either leave or be quiet before I haul you in for obstruction of justi-"

She suddenly was hit from behind by a spell and dropped to the ground.

Meanwhile, Dumbledore was in shock as he saw Snape now standing behind her, obviously having just cast a spell at her. He rushed over then to feel her pulse, and found that she was still alive, obviously just knocked out.

"Severus just what is the meaning of this?" Dumbledore demanded of him.

Snape was about to answer, but Dumbledore noticed a figure that he had only just took notice of, had been currently hiding in the corner of the room under an invisibility cloak, normally undetectable but with his special half moon spectacles that wasn't an issue. He was already trying to level a spell at Snape who was oblivious to the threat.

Without a second to lose, Dumbledore cast his own wand at the figure, immediately dropping him with a stunner.

As he went over to look at him, he realized it was Alastor Moody, a well known Auror and a personal friend to him. He had been lucky to take him out so easily.

"Did you really think she wouldn't have brought back up?" Dumbledore asked Snape.

"That's what I have you for, Dumbledore." Snape answered snidely, "I had to take that risk, she might have ruined all of our plans, this is the only way I could think to stop her from getting it. I figured I'd at least try to tell her what she wanted to know without me revealing it, but she forced my hand, as nosy as she is. Now help me put a memory charm on them so they forget this little incident."

"You wish to try and memory charm them?" Dumbledore asked in alarm.

"Not like you haven't done worse things in the name of the greater good." Snape answered, seeming to scoff a bit, "This is the only way to get her off our cases. Besides, we just attacked the Head of Magical Law Enforcement and an Auror, that means jail time for both of us."

Dumbledore paused for a moment longer before concluding that he was right, he couldn't have her bothering them again.

"They are bound to be difficult to memory charm." Dumbledore replied, "Even with them unconscious it will be difficult to do without either of them figuring out something is amiss eventually."

"That's why I'm going to need to your help." Snape answered, before pointing at Dumbledore's yew wand, "That too."

Dumbledore glanced at his wand, the most powerful wand ever created or so the legend claimed, if there was any wand that could handle it, it would be this one.

He pointed said wand at the body of Madame Bones while Snape prepared with his own wand on the other side of her.

At the count of 3 they began, and Dumbledore quickly found that he had been completely right, both of their minds were well fortified even at rest, and had it not been for both himself and Snape making a full out assault on it, along with the power of his wand they would not have succeeded.

As it was, however, they were able to modify her memories of her of her conversation with Snape along with anything else they didn't want her to remember, covering her original memories with very well placed copies, false memories of her having interviewed Snape, finding that he had been telling the truth about his involvement with Harry's abuse at the hands of his relatives, basically an expanded version of what Dumbledore had already told Madame Bones.

Next Dumbledore took the opportunity to take a look at the contract to see if perhaps there was a way around it so Snape could keep his job. Yet as he looked it over, it appeared there was no loopholes to exploit, Madame Bones had made it far too ironclad. He'd have to either accept the resignation or risk losing his magic.

"This could be a problem, you might have to leave Hogwarts and we both know that can't happen if we are to succeed." Dumbledore admitted as he looked it over.

"I can't leave now Dumbledore, we simply can't move anything now, the experiment could fail, and we're entering a stage where I'm going to need your constant help now more than ever." Snape informed him.

"I'm aware of that," Dumbledore replied angrily, "but I'm also not sure how to get past this contract. It was foolish of you to sign it, you might have ruined everything."

As Dumbledore's fears of their plans now being ruined, he began to grow ever more angry at Snape's foolishness. He had been forced to put up with alot concerning him because he knew he still needed his cooperation, and the success of the experiment was far more important than anything he felt against Snape. Now with that in jeopardy he felt like he now had nothing stopping him from taking it out on him.

"Just wait a minute Dumbledore," Snape cautioned, "I didn't ruin anything. The contract forces me to resign as a teacher, but it does not force me to leave the castle premises. I can still continue with the experiment, in fact I'll be able to accelerate it without the need to teach putting restraints on my time. The experiment can continue unabated as long as you agree as Headmaster to allow me to reside here."

Dumbledore nodded, it was a good plan, Madame Bones would most likely not be happy, but there was nothing legally that she could do to prohibit it.

With that issue now addressed, they turned back to the two unconscious people and finish up before they could awaken, once again checking to make sure there work would be undetectable, searching for any sort of protections that might allow them to one day regain their changed memories, they found one on Madame Bones, and two on the paranoid Alastor Moody, both of which they had removed.

After they finished they both looked over at Madame Bones, slightly exhausted from the immense effort they had put in, when Snape said with desire in his eyes, now staring at her rather ample bosom.

"It's a shame we couldn't get away with raping her as well."

Dumbledore was offended by this but he chose to say nothing, now used to the terrible things Snape sometimes said, as he would usually act like a baby and refuse to work on the experiment for a time if he rebuked him, even though he never could put it off for long, just as focused on succeeding as he was. At any rate she began to come to right after, not knowing she had saved herself from having Snape try and grope her, his hand already having been headed there.

"What happened?" She asked blearily.

"I'm afraid you fainted." Snape answered, sticking his hand down further in front of her as if he had been intending to use it to help her up, "Probably the fumes from the potion I was working on, it can have side effects such as fainting, particularly if you aren't used to being around it while its being brewed."

She took the proffered hand and stood up before looking over at Dumbledore.

"When you fainted," Dumbledore explained, "Severus came and found me and I had you straightened out, so no harm done."

"Well then I thank you Dumbledore." Madame Bones answered.

As she then glanced over and noticed the still unconscious form of Alastor Moody right beside her, she opened her mouth wide in alarm.

"The same thing must have happened to Moody who I'm sure you brought as some form of protection." Dumbledore informed her, "The fumes were apparently rather potent."

"I'd like to talk to you about a few things Dumbledore." Madame Bones stated as she began to regain full cognizance of her surroundings.

"Of course." Dumbledore agreed, "Were you done talking with Severus then? Got everything you need?"

"Yes, we were just finishing up." Snape replied for her, before saying to her, "I'm sorry I couldn't be more of assistance, I feel terrible that this happened, but I suppose all of us are at fault in some way."

Madame Bones seemed to agree with him, at least on that point, and Snape decided that this would be a good time to seek his leave, letting Dumbledore explain about him staying at Hogwarts even though he was no longer a teacher, and deal with Moody as well.

"I simply must go as I need to start clearing out my office." He announced.

Madame Bones made a move to stop him, but at that moment Moody began to stir finally, temporarily diverting her attention and Snape took the opportunity to get out then, leaving Dumbledore to clear up the mess.

Yet as he left, he didn't go to his office, but through a hidden door behind a statue, using the password that only he and Dumbledore knew.

As he entered the room behind it, filled with various potions, and magical items, all in an attempt to get the experiment to succeed.

He bypassed all of those things and instead made his way over to the two tables where two figures lay. Such figures might have been thought of as human had they both not been missing legs and arms.

Yet he went over to the larger of the two and gazed down at it, a face he felt he could gaze upon forever, the face of Lily Evans.

It had taken him this long just to accomplish this much as it involved something that had never been done before: bring someone back from the dead.

He had been so distraught over the loss of Lily, knowing that it was his fault, him having unknowingly given the prophecy to the Dark Lord that ultimately caused him to go after her and kill her, even though he had begged him to spare her.

Such absolute remorse over being the cause of the death of the love of his life had nearly caused him to kill himself when he decided that one way or another, he would find a way to bring her back.

He soon realized however that it would be incredibly hard to do. First of all, the body had been all but destroyed in the magical explosion that had occurred, rendering it useless, even as an inferi or the result of some sort of necromantic spell if he had opted to take either route. It had required him to craft a totally new body, using what little had been salvaged from the scene of the crime, basically just ashes. Unfortunately the items that he found he would need in order to even have a chance to do so would be impossible for him to obtain without knowing the right person. Fortunately he had learned of the story of Dumbledore and his lifetime regret at the loss of his sister Ariana, and it was in that regret that he found a kindred spirit in bringing back the dead, and a great benefactor, promising that he would also bring back his sister as well so that she might be able to enjoy the life that had been taken from her.

It had been over 10 long years since then, and had it not been for Dumbledore's aid, he would never have even gotten this far, having access to knowledge, books, magical items and potion ingredients he could never have gotten on his own. While they often clashed, Dumbledore chose to put up with him as he wasn't the only one harboring deep remorse for helping to cause the death of a loved one.

Snape had far more than just blackmail on him involving what had happened with his sister Ariana which he was sure Dumbledore would have tried to have him forget or lose in some way from his memories by now had it not been for the experiment that necessitated him knowing it. He literally had the life of his sister Ariana in his hands, and he knew by now that Dumbledore would do anything to bring her back, which allowed him to get away with far more than any ordinary teacher would.

While the loss of income from teaching would be a problem, he still should be able to make enough money from making and selling potions for him to afford working on the experiment. It could take several more years before they were finally ready, but Snape was willing to wait, he had been patient this long, and this time without Potter around to steal her away from him and Lily no doubt incredibly grateful for bringing her back to life, he would finally win the heart of his one love.

"I'll bring you back, I promise Lily." Snape announced to her still lifeless form.

DUELDUELDUEL

The announcement that Snape had quit was considered great news by most of the students, minus most of the Slytherins. The fact that he was still going to be staying at the castle, but not in a teaching position, as well as the rumors about just why he had resigned in the first place was the topic of many a conversation, speculating about it.

"It was probably because he snapped and killed someone." Ron Weasley suggested to Dean, Seamus, and Neville at the Gryffindor table, slightly away from Harry's group at the end of the table, currently consisting of himself, Pansy, Susan, Su, Hermione, Parvati, and Lavender. Since each of the girls had many friends, they had taken to sitting at a different table every day so that they would always be sitting by one group of them, there not being enough room for each of their friends to sit with them at any one table. While the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs were usually pretty happy to have them, and the Gryffindors too for the most part, the Slytherins, particularly Malfoy and his cronies never seemed happy when they sat at their table, choosing the very opposite end where they normally sat while the rest of the Slytherins gave them a wide berth, except for both Daphne and Tracey, who had been friends with Pansy virtually their entire lives and weren't about to have that change now.

Admittedly the Slytherins' action of ignoring them and trying to avoid them was far better than what they usually had to put up with in Ron Weasley, who kept insisting that Harry should be friends with him, while simultaneously insulting Pansy because she was a Slytherin - and therefore according to him evil - whenever she was around. Harry had grown tired of his antics by now, especially after having already told him off multiple times for it.

"I just wish that it had been another slimy Slytherin that he killed off, actually shown favoritism the wrong way for a change." Ron finally concluded, still totally ignoring the fact that had Snape killed someone he most certainly would have gotten a far worse punishment than being forced to resign. Privately he would guess that Snape had finally just realized he hated teaching so much that he had decided to quit, but of course with Ron Weasley it had to be something bigger than that.

"Yeah, but why would Snape kill another Slytherin?" Seamus asked, "If Snape did kill someone it would be a Gryffindor."

"I never said he'd do it, just wish it was a Slytherin, we could use less of those in the world." Ron replied, glaring pointedly at Pansy.

"Ron, shut up." Harry told him loudly, "I don't like a lot of the Slytherins like Malfoy either but there are plenty of good ones as well."

"All Slytherins are the same." Ron countered, "Its not your fault you have to get married to one of them but no need to try being her friend, she's just into you for your fame and money, not like your real friends like me."

Harry was about to pull his wand and hex him, but Pansy pulled him back down.

"Please don't get into trouble on my account." She whispered to him.

"Why don't you fight me Slytherin?" Ron suggested to Pansy, not even bothering to use her real name, "You need Harry to fight all your battles for you?"

Pansy looked hurt, she had always felt badly about this, and he had feeling that Ron had figured that out as well.

"Pansy could beat an idiot like you any day of the week." Su claimed.

"Come on, you'll just get us into trouble." Susan cautioned to Su.

"I'm sick of hearing him talk." Su said before turning back to Ron, "Why not fight me instead?"

"You need someone else to fight for you again, why am I not surprised Slytherin?" Ron asked Pansy, obviously at least not stupid enough to pick a fight with Su.

Harry knew that Pansy was not one to jump at a fighting opportunity, but apparently whatever Ron had said had gotten to her because she surprisingly said, "You're on."

Ron grinned, "If I win you have to agree to only sit at the Slytherin table again."

Susan opened her mouth to say something but Pansy shushed her and told Ron, "Name the time and place."

Ron seemed to think for a moment, before saying, "Tomorrow, in front of the trophy room, midnight."

"Why not in front of everyone in the Great Hall, you coward?" Su claimed.

"That's fine with me." Pansy answered, disregarding that suggestion, "I'll be there."

Pansy got up from the table, clearly unwilling to sit anywhere near Ron at that moment, and the rest of their group, including Lavender, Parvati, and Hermione, hastened to do the same, most of them having already finished eating anyway.

When they got out of the great hall, however, Pansy couldn't resist saying, sounding a bit worried, "What was I thinking? I don't know how to duel."

"You couldn't let him keep saying that stuff about you." Su claimed, "He's a jerk, and he needs to be put in his place."

"I don't even know what came over me, I'm usually able to just put up with all of it, but I suppose after everything me and the other Slytherins have been going through this week..."

"What do you mean?" Lavender asked.

"Come on, its not like you haven't noticed." Su replied, "Ever since Snape quit, many of the students have been taking it out on the Slytherins, without having to worry about Snape punishing them every time they try anything on them, they think its time to really hand it to them."

"Snape is still here though." Parvati reminded them.

"Yes, but not as a teacher and he can't really do anything anymore as far as punishment is concerned, all he can really do is go get another teacher. Besides, he isn't allowed to be out and about during school hours, at least that's what my aunt told me, she wouldn't admit to anything further so that's all I know about Snape.

"At any rate," Su continued, "alot of students have figured out that Snape is no longer an obstacle in pulling pranks and stuff on the Slytherins. A lot of them feel justified in doing so because Snape has been letting them get away with stuff for years, and they just kind of assume that all Slytherins were children of former Death Eaters, so they deserve it."

"That's ridiculous though!" Susan insisted, "I'm sure there are plenty, but not all of them are bad, there are plenty of them who's parents were never Death Eaters. And besides, even if their parents were, it doesn't mean their children feel the same way or deserve to be punished."

"We might feel that way only because we've gotten to know good Slytherins like Pansy, Daphne, and Tracey but a lot of students haven't been willing to give Slytherins a chance." Harry stated.

"That's kind of why I just got so mad." Pansy admitted, "I never really guessed just what Snape actually did for us, I always thought he showed blatant favoritism but it wasn't until after he stopped teaching that I found out that the only reason a lot of students wouldn't mess with us is because they were so afraid of Snape. This morning the entrance to the Slytherin common room was glued shut with magic resistant glue, none of us could get out or even notify anyone what was going on, we all missed breakfast. Yesterday Tracey had the back of her robes burnt off when she tried to sit down in a chair, and then a girl in 5th year the day before that had her face burned when a firecracker exploded in her face. I've heard of another half a dozen instances as well.

"How come you never said anything?" Susan asked.

"I didn't want to worry any of you." Pansy answered.

"We want to know if you're all right." Harry told her, putting an arm around her.

"Yeah, nobody messes with you without me having something to say about it." Su told her.

"I don't want you having to fight all my battles for me all the time though." Pansy responded, "I'm sure you'd be happy to do it, but I want to be able to defend myself."

"I'm going to find out just who's been pulling pranks on all the Slytherins." Susan stated.

"The Weasley twins for one I'd wager." Hermione said, "Several of those pranks sounded like their usual style."

"I'm going to be having a talk with them then." Harry said, "They seem like nice guys, unlike their brother Ron, they probably just got a bit carried away."

"I'll talk to them." Susan insisted, having a feeling she could handle the situation better. "You and Su need to get Pansy ready for her duel."


	10. Not to be expected

Author's Note: Still got flamed for the last chapter but the difference is I'm happy with it, so I suppose that's all that matters, so long as at least a few people feel the same way which they have, so on with the story!

Chapter 10

Nothing

As Pansy began to come to, after having been hit by a stunner for what seemed like the millionth time by Su, she was reminded again of her lack of dueling prowess, and just how reckless she had been in accepting the duel with Ron in the first place. Harry and Su were the duelists, while she... well let's just say that fighting had never been her thing.

"You did better that time." Su supported, reaching down to help her up.

"No I didn't, that was even worse." Pansy said, recognizing that Su was only just trying to give her at least some confidence in her progress.

"I told you I'd turn you into a duelist before the night was over and by Merlin I'm going to." Su claimed.

She certainly was trying her best to fulfill that, they had gotten permission from Flitwick to practice dueling in his dueling arena after hours, and now it was nearly 1:00 in the morning, Harry and Susan had told her they would stay late as well and help her, but she had insisted on them going to bed, leaving only Su, who steadfastly insisted on helping her.

While Pansy admired Su's faith in her, she knew herself that it was a lost cause, one simply did not become a duelist overnight, and even Su knew that as much as she might try to deny it. Harry had only won his duel with Malfoy because of his own natural talent, and an incredible amount of luck, two things that she had never seemed to have, the only luck she could ever remember having received was when Harry had won her in that duel.

"Let's face it, I'm just not cut out for this." Pansy declared.

Su looked at her before replying slowly, "I suppose you're not the best duelist in the world, but then again I'll bet Weasley isn't either. The boy spends most of his time still trying to perform a spell that makes alcohol!"

Pansy giggled at that, memories of watching Ron in his many failed attempts with Seamus to make rum, whiskey, or various other alcoholic beverages, none of which having succeeded. It was also true Ron wasn't the best student either, he was constantly getting in trouble for failing to do his homework, or when he did, doing an abysmal job. Many times he was caught trying to cheat off of other students, particularly Hermione, who had taken to obscuring her homework whenever Ron was near.

"Trust me," Su told her, "against that lout you've got nothing to worry about."

While she had to admit Su might have a point, she still worried. "What if I lose though?"

Su answered, "What would Harry think?"

"Harry would go beat Weasley up." Su answered her own question, "He'd have him begging for forgiveness, and reduced to the blubbering pile of rubbish that he is."

"See now that's exactly what I don't want to have happen." Pansy replied, "I don't want him or anyone else fighting for me."

"I guarantee you Harry wouldn't mind." Su soothed, "He would be happy to..."

"Its not that, its the principle." Pansy admitted, "I don't want to be the damsel in distress all the time, having to rely on Harry and you for protection. What does that say about me as a person? A weak little rich girl who can't fend for herself?"

Su's eyes widened as she realized what she meant, and then she looked completely out of sorts, wondering how to respond to that. Su was a person who handled her problems with action, dealing with emotions on the other hand, particularly other people's were, not her strong suit. Nevertheless, she tried to come up with a response to that.

"You know people tend to think I'm weak and unable to do anything before they get to know me." Su began, "All they ever seem to see is this short little chinese girl. That's one reason why I like fighting so much, so that I can prove them wrong."

"I'm not a fighter like you though, I don't really bring any value to Harry or anyone else for that matter." Pansy responded.

"Do you think Harry is really that superficial that he would like a person only for their fighting prowess?"

Pansy still felt horrible, she wasn't a fighter like Su, nor did she have such long gorgeous shiny black hair like her. The other girls she would be sharing Harry with was already becoming extraordinarily pretty as she began to go through puberty, and had fantastic minds. Susan in particular stood out for having an amazing and caring personality. Nobody could help but like Susan.

Herself on the other hand... While she had tried to shake it, she couldn't help but worry that having to share with two such desirable girls would one day cause Harry to forget about her entirely, that she would simply become someone that he had to be with. More than anything she hoped to learn to truly love him, and for him to love her. She already knew that he was by far the most amazing boy that she had ever known, already she couldn't help but like him.

Finally she broke down and confessed these thoughts to Su, who stood silently listening, making not a single comment until after she had finished.

She then had to wait a good long minute while Su thought up a reply.

"It's not like I haven't wondered just how our relationship with Harry will go," Su admitted, "I like him a lot too, and one day I also hope it will develop into something more, yet as for what may end up happening in the end, who knows, I'm only 12, a lot could happen before we're married. Yet in any case I don't think Harry would ever be the type of person to simply forget about any one of us, it isn't in his nature, nor would I or Susan try to steal him for ourselves. Its a difficult relationship in many ways but we all just have to learn to how to deal with it. The best thing we can do is have all of us be friends with one another so that we can always work things out."

"I'm glad you're my friend." Pansy confessed, grateful to her.

"I am too," Su said moving in to give the other girl a hug.

Yet after hugging each other for a moment, as Su began to draw away, Pansy noticed a cut on Su's arm.

"How did you get that?" Pansy asked, pointing at it.

Su glanced at it, then said, "Oh that, that's nothing, I have small stuff like that happen all the time while practicing dueling, its no big deal."

"Hold on," Pansy said, pulling out her wand and pointing it at the cut, "Mende."

The wound began to close up and heal itself, until finally there was nothing there at all.

"Good as new." Pansy proclaimed.

"So it is," Su agreed, looking it over once again, "I didn't know you were good at healing."

"I have an aunt who's a healer and taught me quite a few healing spells whenever I went to go stay with her each summer when my parents went on their annual business trip to Dubai." Pansy answered, "My father never cared much for my aunt, as he felt that she was beneath him because she was willing to do such "menial labor", but they didn't want to bring me with them, and my aunt was the only one I could stay with. I always loved going over there, much better than it ever was at home, and she decided to teach me how to use healing spells after I promised not to tell either of my parents."

"Well I'll know who to go to when I get more injuries," Su replied, "it could come in handy."

Pansy grinned, "Secretly I had been wanting to become a healer, but I always knew Draco would never have allowed it, most wealthy Purebloods discourage their wives from working."

"So I've heard, but that was before you ended up with Harry, and I have full confidence he wouldn't mind. In fact I'm sure he would be grateful to you; he gets scraped up nearly as much as me." Su answered.

"I thought about healing him before when I saw him scraped up, but I wanted to make sure I could do it correctly. Healing can have disastrous results if not done correctly, that's why I've been practicing so much, figured it was at least something that I was good at and liked doing." Pansy answered.

"I wish you'd told us sooner." Su told her before suddenly stopping for a second as if thinking about something, "Those disastrous results, you don't think any of them might be any good in a duel would you?"

"You mean deliberately mess up the spell?" Pansy asked.

"Like instead of seal up a cut, seal up Weasley's big fat mouth, yes." Su suggested.

Pansy couldn't resist grinning, she knew that while it may or may not be unethical to actually cause harm with healing spells, it certainly would have its merits, and with the right spells, shouldn't cause any real lasting harm. Besides, it would be fun to watch Weasley squirm, and have an edge over him.

"You know I think I know just what spells to use." Pansy couldn't resist saying with obvious malicious glee.

When she got back to practicing, trying out healing spells for combat purposes, she felt much more comfortable and capable of using the spells than the ones Su had been trying to teach her. That familiarity with spells that she actually knew how to do quite well enabled her to focus more on the spells that came her way from Su. She knew that Su was going easy on her, and probably allowed herself to be hit, but she couldn't help but grin when she saw her spell had hit its mark, a spell that immediately caused Su to lose her voice as she struggled to talk, a spell meant to heal a sore throat - if it was used correctly, that is. Used incorrectly as she had purposefully done it had the side effect of the person temporarily losing the ability to speak. This spell however used in such a way would essentially prevent any witch or wizard not knowing non-verbal magic from being able to duel, and leave them at her mercy.

After restoring her ability to talk, Su spoke up, sounding impressed, "That's such a useful spell, I'm definitely going to have to learn that."

"I'll teach you." Pansy replied, happy that she now had something that she could teach the incredibly talented Ravenclaw girl.

"I noticed you used a couple others." Su admitted.

"Yeah," Pansy answered, "that spell that made that soothing music, I was hoping it might serve as a distraction, and then one that's supposed to make your feet feel warm, but if poorly done will make them feel too hot. If you got hit with that one it would feel like running on hot coals. I thought of one other spell I can use, but I decided to spare you on that one and use it on Weasley. It's a muscle relaxant spell that has the unfortunate side effect of the person losing control of their bowels unless another spell is placed on the patient first."

Su laughed, "You mean that Weasley would..."

"Yep, he'd have a little accident." Pansy joined in on the laughter.

"You know I think I'm going to like watching this duel." Su confided.

An hour later, when they finally returned to their dormitories, Pansy went to bed confident and eager for the duel that would take place the next night.

DUELDUELDUEL

During breakfast, the 4 of them were sitting at the Ravenclaw table with Su's friend Padma when Ron and his two cronies, Seamus and Dean stopped by their table.

"You ready for our duel Slytherin?" Ron sneered.

"Are you?" She countered.

The weasel seemed pretty offset by this cheeky and confident reply, and he actually backed up a step, it was amazing just how pathetic he could be.

Yet as that step also knocked him into both his two cronies standing behind him, he suddenly realized he was making himself look like a fool in front of them as well and squared his shoulders, grinning back at her. "I couldn't be more ready, see you at midnight."

He turned on his heels and left, leaving them once again with the good fortune to no longer be in his presence."

"What a jerk?" Susan declared, "I hope you mop the floor with him."

"Don't worry, she will." Su answered boldly, putting an arm onto her in the process to show support.

"Do you feel the practice you put in helped?" Harry asked, "You know I would have stayed to help you longer if you had let me."

"It's all right, I'll be fine." Pansy reassured him, "Su helped me find my niche when it comes to dueling."

Harry made an interested sound as he was currently chewing his food.

"You'll see." Pansy replied mischievously, enjoying being the one to have a few tricks up their sleeves for a change.

"Then I look forward to seeing what you can do." Harry told her, displaying a sense of pride in her in his voice, causing her heart to flutter a bit. It meant a lot to her that Harry would feel any measure of pride in her.

When they finally got some free time after dinner Pansy was quick to show Harry exactly what she meant, and after being the recipient of her mute spell and then having his ability to speak restored, he had to agree that he was impressed, causing her to swell with pride again.

With a few spells that she could now use at her arsenal, Su and Harry had her focus more on dodging and avoiding spells, being careful however not too tire her out too much for the actual duel. While she knew that she wouldn't even have a real chance against either Su or Harry in this regard, they at least reassured her that she was quite good at it, and she hoped that it would be good enough to beat Weasley.

However, they were kicked out 10 minutes before they were supposed to be in bed by Flitwick, who was quite irate at finding out just how late they had stayed the previous night, but fortunately let them off with a stiff warning not to do so again. They of course didn't mention that they would be out after hours yet again that night.

Yet they did not return to their dormitories, instead opting to find an abandoned classroom to sleep in, as having the 4 of them leaving from 4 different Common Rooms would quadruple their chances of getting caught. Instead they tried the best they could to get some sleep before the duel without any real bedding. As tired as they all were however, it proved not to be an issue, as they fell right asleep, other than Su, who volunteered to keep look out.

Pansy herself was fairly tired, as she was practicing dueling and staying up late the previous night fell right asleep, but felt like she had scarcely closed her eyes when she was shaken awoken by Su.

"It's time." Su told her, as she groggily woke up and began to get up, while Su also woke up both Harry and Susan.

After they all got up, they headed over to the trophy room that was just down the hall.

Looking around however, they failed to spot Ron, or Seamus or Dean, evidently they were a bit late.

They had barely had any time to wait for them however before they heard the voice of Filch utter to his pet cat Mrs. Norris, "Let's see if that boy was telling the truth, my sweet."

As the light from his lamp grew closer, they each ran for it, with Su in the lead, followed by the rest of them, doing their best to try and catch up.

Yet suddenly they saw another lantern coming up in front of them from the other side of the corridor, they were trapped.

With nowhere else to go, Su tried to turn around, but Pansy knew that they would be caught from the other side as well. Hoping that she could simply run right past the other person, she kept running, only to collide into the side of the person anyway, as they turned out to be far bigger and take more of the hallway than she had thought.

"What the?" The person asked.

She immediately recognized the voice to be the gruff, deep voice of Hagrid, the Hogwarts groundskeeper.

"Hagrid!" Su enthusiastically said, sounding genuinely pleased to see him.

"Hello Su." Hagrid replied fondly as she came up in front of him, "What brings ya out this late at night? Not an extra long detention I hope?"

"Look, there's no time to explain." Su said breathlessly.

Yet before she could get out another word, Filch finally caught up with them. "Ah hah!" He crowed in triumph, "Students out of bed!"

He grinned nastily at the 4 of them with his rotten teeth, probably imagining just what kinds of punishments he could give them.

Hagrid looked over at them again, and slowly put two and two together, realizing they did not in fact have permission to be out this late.

Yet Pansy couldn't see any reason for that to do much good, as none of them really knew Hagrid, unless you counted the time when Harry had met him and been told he was a wizard, an experience that he had already related to all of them.

Much to her surprise, however, Hagrid chose to back them up.

"Now wait just a minute," Hagrid told Filch, "These 4 are serving detention with me."

"Doing what exactly?" Filch asked disbelievingly.

"Helping me feed the animals." Hagrid answered, as he once again picked up a large tub of raw meat, something in all the excitement Pansy had failed to notice.

"Is that so?" Filch questioned.

"Hagrid was just explaining to us what the Hippogriffs should be fed, raw fish, salmon being their favorite, but they also like cod." Su told Filch.

"What about unicorns?" Hagrid asked Su, surprisingly able to pull off the charade quite easily, as if he had asked such questions before many times.

"Carrots and apples, although any fresh veggies will do, and during mating season you want to feed them gem fruits which cause their horns to glow a beautiful rainbow hue which is attractive to prospective mates." Su quickly answered.

Filch didn't seem like he was willing to give up so easily, but Su took advantage of his hesitancy and asked Hagrid, "Weren't we going to go feed Fluffy?"

Hagrid nodded and said, "Right ya are, well I guess we'd better get on over there."

They left a very disappointed Filch behind, they set off to wherever this creature called Fluffy was located. When they got out of earshot of Filch, Su thanked Hagrid, "Thanks Hagrid, that was a close one."

"Yer want to tell me just why yer out so late and why I had to lie ter Filch?" Hagrid asked back, "I should have turned ya all in, the lotta yeh."

"You wouldn't have done that Hagrid." Su answered confidently, "I knew I could count on you, you're the best." She planted a kiss on Hagrid's knee as she couldn't reach his face, but it still caused Hagrid to blush at the praise.

"How do you know Hagrid?" Susan asked of Su.

"I wanted to know more about that 3 headed dog so I went to go ask Hagrid about him." Su explained, "Apparently Hagrid knows a lot about dangerous creatures like that. That's why I knew all that stuff about feeding various animals, Hagrid has been explaining to me."

"The only other student I've had so interested in creatures was Charlie Weasley." Hagrid admitted with pride, "Its nice ter find another student who seems to enjoy studying creatures so much."

"Did you say Weasley?" Harry asked.

"Yep, I believe he has 5 other brothers as far's I know, the youngest just entered Hogwarts this year." Hagrid replied.

"That's why we were out so late." Harry explained, "I'm guessing Ron is Charlie's younger brother, who's in our year and challenged Pansy to a duel, but evidently was too much of a coward to actually show up and try to get us caught by Filch instead."

Hagrid seemed to absorb this for a second, before replying, "Well I'm not gonna to turn yeh in, but I'm also going to make yer finish the detention that yer supposedly doin', yer going to go help me finish feeding the animals, starting with Fluffy."

"Ooh, Hagrid can you please let me fight him now?" Su asked with delight.

"I already told yer its not safe to do tha', can't imagine why yeh have the need to fight everything, Fluffy really is a great dog once you get to know 'im" Hagrid claimed.

"I thought your dog's name was Fang?" Harry asked.

Su grinned, "Oh not that dog Harry, I think you know the one."

Harry blanched as the rest of them realized just what dog Su was referring to.

Pansy was seriously considering simply taking whatever punishment Filch had planned for them rather than face the Cerberus again, but she eventually followed the others and went down to the back of the 3rdfloor corridor where "Fluffy" was located.

Hagrid was about to unlock the door with a key that he produced from one of his huge pockets, yet found that the door was already open.

"What the?" Hagrid asked, "This shouldn't be unlocked."

His surprise turned to outright alarm however when he opened the door to find a sleeping Fluffy, who was laying down next to a self playing harp.

"This is not good!" Hagrid said aloud.

"What's wrong?" Susan asked.

"Somebody figured out how ter make Fluffy fall asleep." Hagrid admitted, "They're probably already down the trap door."

"Then let's follow them and stop them." Su suggested.

Hagrid glanced at the trap door and said, "I don't think I would fit through tha'."

"Then we'll go down there ourselves." Su answered.

"No way I'm going to let you do that, and get yourselves into trouble." Hagrid refused, "You don't know what's down there, you'll get yourselves killed."

"Of course I do." Su said, surprising all of them, "There's a devils' snare at the bottom, then there's a room full of keys, a room with a chessboard, a troll to fight, and then a room behind a wall of fire."

"How on earth do you know all of that?" Susan asked.

"Obviously I went down there before." Su told her without a hint of remorse, "You don't really think I could pass up a challenge, or a sense of danger?"

Susan shook her head incredulously, and Su said, "Don't worry Hagrid, we'll do it."

Before Hagrid could stop her, Su opened up the trap door and jumped down it.

"Blast that girl!" Hagrid roared, realizing his size prevented him from following after her, even while attempting rip open a wider gap to no avail.

"We'll get her back then, and bring her back up while you go get us up a rope or something to pull us out again, or perhaps let Dumbledore know about this." Harry suggested.

"I can't just let you all go." Hagrid argued.

"We'll be out in no time." Harry said.

Hagrid seemed to linger a bit before realizing that either of those things would be the most he could do under the circumstances.

At the same time, Harry leaped down the trap door after Su, followed closely by Susan.

After a second's worth of hesitation, Pansy jumped after them, and in the split second before she landed she suddenly had one of those moment's that a person had in hindsight of a bad idea, as it would not have been necessary for all of them to have leaped down the hole in order to go and get Su, yet now it was too late to change her mind.

Yet as she landed upon the devil's snare that Su had already warned them about, she found that instead of being choked and squeezed to death by vines, there was a huge bright white light shining in her face, emanating from a wand, yet when she saw who was on the other end of the wand, her eyes rose in alarm.

"Nobody move or I'll be forced to kill you." Quirrell told them, directing his wand from one of them to the other.

None of them moved, not daring to try anything while Quirrell still had his wand leveled at them.

"Now step away from the plant slowly." Quirrell told them.

Each of them did so, slowly moving forward.

"How did you find me?" Quirrell asked of them.

"We saw the harp playing by itself and put two and two together." Su finally answered.

"Do Dumbledore or any teachers know that you're here?" Quirrell asked.

"No." Su answered truthfully, even if it wasn't really what Quirrell wanted to know, as Hagrid technically was not a teacher.

Quirrell breathed a sigh of relief, "Well nothing personal but I can't have you following me or warning anyone else, and my master wants me to kill you."

Both Harry and Su raised their wands as he said this, and Quirrell suddenly realized that they were at a standoff, should he try to kill one of them, he would get hit by the other one.

He chose then to point his wand at Susan.

"Stay back or the girl gets it," Quirrell told them.

Still with two wands now pointed at him, and now joined by a third with Pansy also joining in, Quirrell slowly backed up.

They chose to allow Quirrell to retreat down the passageway as there was no telling what he might do otherwise, still worried about Susan getting hit.

Unfortunately it was at that time Quirrell leaped behind a stone outcropping, temporarily obscuring their ability to hit him and that was when Quirrell took advantage, trying to neutralize them all at once.

Quirrell fired a spell directly at the ceiling above them, causing an avalanche of falling debris. Quirrell ran for it then down the tunnel, yelling something at them in the process but whatever he said was obscured by the sound of the collapsing tunnel, while they still focused on not letting the debris crush them, both Harry and Su too focused on maintaining a shield to protect them with.

The Devil's snare was immediately covered by stone, along with the side where Quirrell was, while the shield that Harry and Su were trying desperately to hold up was getting hit as well.

"Help us!" Harry screamed, forcing both Pansy and Susan to snap out of their fear and lend whatever they could to the shield, using the spell that they were told to use.

Fortunately with the 4 of them using it, the shield held firm as the debris lodged itself all around them, forming a little bubble.

Pansy felt exhausted, the energy needed to use the spell was significant and she felt herself buckling under the strain.

Finally, her strength gave out and she ended the spell, followed closely by Susan, and then Harry and Su who finally had to end it themselves.

Yet luckily the stone all around them held firm at least for now, although any effort to move them could be catastrophic, and have it collapse anyway.

"We're trapped." Harry concluded.

"Are we going to die?" Susan asked in fear, still not yet over the ordeal with Quirrell.

"We're not going to die." Harry answered, trying to sound brave, but also seeming to understand the seriousness of the situation.

Pansy had to agree with him, essentially they were inside a small area that could collapse any second especially if any help that arrived tried to move it, probably had a limited air supply, and Quirrell would be getting away with the stone.

Harry tried to touch the stone to see if maybe he could move it without the whole thing collapsing but a sudden rumbling again nixed that idea.

"Okay, well, that's not going to work." Harry announced, "Any other ideas?"

Everyone looked at Su, hoping that she might have an idea, but she shook her head.

"I'm sorry, its hopeless," She answered, "and its all my fault, if I hadn't tried to be the hero we wouldn't be in this mess."

Su, for once, looked genuinely sorry for her rash actions, and Pansy somehow knew that if they ever got out of this alive, Su would be much more careful about her decisions in the future.

"I never thought it would end like this." Susan said forlornly, sitting down onto the ground.

Pansy sat down next to her in order to comfort her, and in that moment, she realized that somehow, someway they were going to get out of there, alive, she just knew it.


	11. Quirrell's Pet Peeves

Chapter 11

Quirrell's Pet Peeves

Of the most unlikely heroes, it can well be said that Peeves would be one of them. He was never one to take anything seriously, even in life, and even after death and becoming a poltergeist he was even more dedicated to that principle. A poltergeist was a quite rare phenomenon, different from a ghost in that it could actually pick up and hold objects yet still travel through walls and become invisible whenever he so chose. Not all poltergeists were the same of course, but all of them held a deep love and appreciation for one thing: pranks. No poltergeist could resist a prank. Peeves had been in the castle since its founding, and had been dedicated to mischief and pranks ever since, having a whole school full of children and faculty to mess with, he couldn't imagine a better place to haunt.

He had been on the 2nd floor making off with a pair of Filch's underwear that he had managed to pilfer and now put on top of one of the chandeliers in the great hall for everyone to view when he heard a very loud commotion not too far away. Being naturally drawn to loud noises in the first place, he was hoping that some sort of prank was being pulled or a chance to do some mischief might become available.

As he got closer he realized it had been coming through that long passageway that had only one real way to get through it for mortals, the trap door just above it. Normally he had come to avoid going through it as it hadn't been used in over a century, and there was nothing that really peaked his interest at all there. However, with this new loud development he couldn't resist finding out if perhaps this had changed.

He traveled directly through the wall by assuming his ghost form before attempting to travel through the other side, and as he did so realized that the tunnel must have collapsed. Disappointed he was about to just go back when he heard voices emanating from the rock just in front of him.

"Don't worry Dumbledore will get us out," Peeves heard a boy say.

"I don't see how he's going to get us out without all of this rubble collapsing, and even if he does it'll give Quirrell plenty of time to get whatever he's trying to get and escape," a girl answered.

Peeves chose to make his presence known then, never able to keep silent for long.

"HELLO!" Peeves yelled with all his might, startling the 4 children.

"Peeves!" one of the girls said, "I can't believe I'm happy to see you."

"I"m happy to see me too," Peeves replied, before going invisible, "wait now I can't."

"Peeves we need you to go get Professor Dumbledore or another one of the teachers and tell them we're trapped down here," the boy he recognized as Harry Potter said.

"Why should I?" Peeves asked, he never did anything anyone asked him to do, especially a student.

"If you don't we'll die," one of the girl's claimed, "please Peeves, you're our only hope."

Peeves was suddenly faced with a quandary, he saw no reason to obey their orders, they were just ickle firsties, yet allowing someone to die didn't sound like fun. As much as he enjoyed pranks, he always drew the line at murder. Having died himself, he could say that that experience was most certainly not fun, and as mean spirited he might be, he'd never do that to another person. However was simply letting them die murder?

"What if we offered you something?" one of the girl's suggested, "I'm Pansy, and this is Harry, Su, and Susan, you'll be richly rewarded."

Peeves got a twinge of excitement, he rather liked deals, as long as they allowed for more mischief.

"What kind of deal?" Peeves asked, "it had better be good or I ain't doing nothing."

"We want to play a prank on one of the teachers, Professor Quirrell," the girl continued, "but he blasted the tunnel and tried to kill us instead, don't you just hate when pranks get foiled by the person you are trying to prank?"

Peeves did know, some teacher or even student was always ruining his fun.

"We want to offer you a chance to play the biggest prank on him and get back at him," Pansy claimed, "we were going to do it, but we're giving you the chance to do it instead."

Biggest prank? That got his attention.

He was pretty tempted but then realized it might be because they were just trying get him to help them.

"How do I know you're telling me the truth?" Peeves asked.

Pansy sighed, "well I suppose you'll just miss out on it then, can't believe a poltergeist would pass up the opportunity to play the biggest prank ever, I suppose its for the best, you wouldn't have been good enough of a prank puller to pull it off anyway."

"Now wait just a minute," Peeves said, suddenly now being very serious, he took prank pulling very seriously, "I can do any prank, I'm the greatest ever!."

"Then prove it," suggested Pansy, "help get us out of here and we'll tell you the prank."

Peeves mulled it over for a few seconds then realized that the temptation was simply too great, besides he had a reputation to maintain, for him to pass up such a great prank opportunity would make him a laughingstock, and not in the good way.

"Agreed," Peeves answered, "but I want to hear the prank first."

"Right now Quirrell is trying to get through a bunch of obstacles, we want to make it as hard on him as possible," Pansy told him, "this is what you need to do."

As Peeves heard the plan, he grinned, this could be fun, the girl certainly had a malicious mind when she wanted to, and the others also contributed somewhat as well with their own ideas.

"Can you go get Dumbledore now?" the girl named Susan asked as soon as the plan was finished.

"He'll ruin everything that old spoil sport," Peeves claimed, "I'll get you out of here myself."

"How?" Susan asked.

"Like this," Peeves said grabbing her without warning and instantly going invisible. As a poltergeist he had the rare ability to transform whatever he was holding into ghost form as well, allowing the item to travel through walls with him. This also happened to apply to people and animals, which had served useful for example in locking Mrs. Norris in various cupboards all over the castle on many occasions.

He went right through the wall he had come through and deposited her on the other side, and then returned for the others.

As soon as he had done so, he told them, "Now Peevesy wants some fun!"

He glided back through the rubble and through the corridor as fast as he could and sure enough there was Quirrell, right in a room full of flying keys just as had been mentioned. He was even now trying to insert one of the keys into the lock.

Grinning wildly, Peeves went invisible and grabbed the key seemingly out of thin air as if the key had fallen out of his grip and gotten away.

Since the key was already a flying one, it brought disbelief on the part of Quirrell who had no doubt spent ages trying to get it in the first place, but now his prize had escaped and was suddenly flying around again on its own.

Peeves laughed quietly to himself as he flew around with the key still made visible, keeping it just in front of Quirrell, taunting him with it.

Quirrell made several mad dashes at the key trying to grab it, leading twice to him landing face first on the ground. It was made even more comical by the fact that the floor was wet and it was a dirt floor, causing mud to cover his face and front.

"You stupid key," Quirrell yelled angrily at it.

He tried to shoot some spells at it, either missing horribly or failing to work, evidently the key was charmed to prevent it being summoned.

Peeves soon began to grow bored with the display after Quirrell had finally seemed to just give up in frustration, and decided to allow stage two of the plan.

Dropping the key into a mud puddle, as the key really didn't seem to have the ability to fly anymore now with both wings broken he waited for a still shocked Quirrell to reach down and grab it.

Peeves took the opportunity to grab the key and pull it up again, before dropping it onto Quirrell's head.

"Dumb key," Quirrell said, still nursing the wound on his head.

Peeves proceeded through the door, taking Quirrell's broom that he had brought with him as well, unencumbered by the need for a key and set up the next stage in a room with a huge chessboard.

Each of the huge chess pieces had lots of great weapons he was itching to use for nefarious purposes but for right now he focused on setting up the board so that it would be nearly impossible for Quirrell to win.

While Quirrell was no doubt looking for his broom he started killing off as many pieces of his that he could, delighted to find that the chess pieces responded to him.

By the time Quirell finally came in, having given up on finding his broom, he had gotten rid of half of his pawns, his queen, both of his rooks and both of his bishops, and 1 knight.

"Am I really expected to win with this?" Quirrell asked angrily.

To Peeves' surprise he found that Quirrell was actually a quite brilliant chess player even with so few pieces which seemed most unlike him since Peeves had always regarded him as a nincompoop, almost as if he had someone in the back of his head to guide him.

At any rate, he still lost, the loss of so many pieces he was unable to make up for, which Peeves was glad, as he had gotten rather bored watching Quirrell play and had taken to whispering vulgar remarks into the opposing pieces' ears in an effort to make them more angry once the game finally ended.

Not to his surprise when Quirrell finally was checkmated, the pieces all attacked him, with swords and various other weapons being used. Quirrell somehow managed to survive the ordeal although suffering several near misses and cuts, and leaving his robes in tatters by running to the opposite doorway and slamming the door shut behind him.

Still somehow having been able to maintain his secrecy for this long, a new record for him as he had never made his presence unknown for this long, continued on after Quirrell through the door.

The next room had an absolutely huge troll inside which Peeves assumed that Dumbledore must have temporarily shrank in order to get it inside.

Perhaps under normal circumstances Quirrell could have taken it out had he not already been exhausted from fighting off the chess pieces as well as getting the flying key. However Peeves made sure that the troll would have a better fighting chance by poking it repeatedly using one of the swords he had stolen from one of the chess pieces.

That didn't make the troll very happy at all and in a cry of rage it turned on the one being it could see: Quirrell.

Quirrell stepped back, staring down the troll in fear as it swung its club at him, forcing him to dodge.

Peeves had been hoping that the troll would do more damage and perhaps knock him out, so he could then start dropping things on his head in an attempt to wake him up, but Quirrell was too smart for that, he somehow knew how to tackle a troll and hit it with a spell that managed to pierce its thick skull and knock it out.

The only good thing was that the troll landed on Quirrell as it fell, nearly crushing the teacher under its immense weight.

It took awhile before Quirrell was able to get the troll off of him, and during that time Peeves moved on to the next room, where various potions were located.

Of course he couldn't resist switching out the potions, so that even he had no idea which potion was which, even though some evidently poisoned you, one got you through the flames safely, and the rest did nothing. He ended up dumping all of the potions and putting stinksap and belch powder that he produced from his pocket down them instead that he had managed to pilfer from Filch who had in turn pilfered it from the Weasley twins.

He watched with baited breath as Quirrell finally came in and went over the riddle before finally selecting the one that should have worked had it not been for his sabotage. Quirrell was foolish enough to immediately try and drink it down with a clearly nasty look on his face, as stinksap smelled terrible and tasted even worse.

Yet thinking that the potion just tasted horrible, Quirrell let out a very loud belch before trying to go through the flames.

Lucky for Quirrell, he only got his foot through before he yelped in pain, the fire being at such an intense heat that it immediately burned his foot, burning through the shoe and also lighting his robe on fire.

He was forced to remove his robe, leaving him in only his underwear, evidently he wasn't wearing anything else underneath, and try and put out the flames, only to discover that the fire wouldn't get put out very easily, perhaps because of the intensity of the flames, or perhaps because of the flammable liquid that Peeves poured on it while Quirrell was still nursing his hot foot.

Now clad only in his underwear, Quirrell was forced to use some sort of spell to get past the flames, before moving onward with Peeves traveling a few seconds behind.

Su had told him that she didn't know what was beyond the flames so Peeves was disappointed to find that instead of more things to sabotage, there was only an old mirror, and a dead end.

As he pondered whether or not he should smash the mirror, Quirrell stared into the mirror, getting angrier and angrier as he did so, now starting to have a conversation with himself, causing Peeves to wonder if perhaps he should get a straight jacket since Quirrell had apparently lost it.

Yet just as he was thinking that, he began to hear another voice emanating from the back of Quirrell's head.

Now curious he went over and quickly pulled off the turban.

Peeves gasped as he noticed a face in the back of Quirrell's head. He had always thought that some of the teachers had eyes in the back of their head in order to always catch him doing mischief even when their back was turned, but this was his first proof that it was actually true.

"Quirrell, you fool," the voice roared.

"I'm sorry master," Quirrell muttered, trying to replace the turban.

Peeves by this time had finally gotten tired of hiding his presence and instead while Quirrell was bending down to pick up the turban, kicked his rear end, causing him to fall over onto his face.

Finally he went over and made himself visible, sitting on Quirrell's second face, causing it to scream unintelligibly.

"What's that? I can't hear you, my butt is in the way," Peeves cackled with glee.

Quirrell began to get up, forcing Peeves to get up off the face as well, but not before letting out one very nasty fart right on his face.

"Peeves," the face said now recognizing him, "how dare you trifle with Lord Voldemort."

"Moldywart, moldywart, his warts are all moldy with Quirky, quicky, quacky Quirrell," Peeves began chanting.

"You'll pay for this," the face claiming to be Lord Voldemort screamed at him.

"Funny, what are you going to do to me, scream at me to death," Peeves cheekily responded.

"Get him!" Voldemort told Quirrell.

As soon as Quirrell had turned around, however, Peeves disappeared and turned invisible.

Nevertheless Quirrell fired a spell at where he guessed he was, missing horribly.

By that time, Peeves had gone to his side, kicking him in the same foot that had been burned, and now without proper foot protection and a burn on it, Quirrell yelped in pain.

"Nice try," Peeves claimed blowing a loud raspberry, "catch me if you can."

"Come on you bumbling idiot, its just Peeves," Voldemort said.

Quirrell tried firing another spell, but Peeves had already left again and was preparing to try the same thing to the other side when he heard another voice come from where the flames were.

"Quirinius," Dumbledore said gravely.

Peeves was disappointed to find Dumbledore around, it usually meant that his fun and games were over, yet he never tried to disobedy Dumbledore as long as he was around, out of all the teachers, students, and ghosts he had known in his existence as a poltergeist, Dumbledore was one of the few who he was forced to respect, recognizing that he had the power to actually cast him out if he so chose.

"Hello Professor head," Peeves said, adopting a salute.

"I see Peeves has already had his way with you Quirrell," Dumbledore chuckled.

"Quacky has been ever so much fun Professor," Peeves claimed.

"I'm sure he has," Dumbledore agreed, "and I thank you for that."

"Thank me?" Peeves asked in bewilderment, he'd never been thanked before for a prank, at least not from a teacher. It hadn't been his intention to do something nice, he just couldn't pass up the opportunity to pull some pranks.

"You've done the school a great honor for slowing down Quirrell like this," Dumbledore claimed.

"Does this mean I get to have some more stink bombs?" Peeves asked.

"I'm sure I'll think of some reward for you," Dumbledore told him, "but first I must deal with Quirrell."

"Turn around," Voldy-face asked.

Quirrell did as he was directed showing the face to Dumbledore.

"Hello Dumbledore," the voice rasped, "are you still so desperate that you have to have a poltergeist to do your dirty work?"

"Hello Tom," Dumbledore replied, "it appears that times must be hard for you to have to inhabit another man's body.

"You bring any other fool servants?" Voldemort asked.

"Oh no, its just you and me as you would want," Dumbledore told him.

"Do you really think this fool that I share a body with can ever hope to defeat you? Even I have to admit that." Voldemort asked, "we shall meet again Dumbledore when I have my own body to defeat you."

Quirrell seemed to be wondering what he meant when he began to gasp for breath as he fell onto his knees, and Peeves realized that Moldywort was dispossessing Quirrell which in Quirrell's case was a death sentence. The face began on the other hand began to dissolve into smoke that departed through one of the walls.

Dumbledore watched him go, but of course Peeves could never sit still and asked him, "so about this reward?"

DUELDUELDUEL

The next morning, Harry, Susan, Pansy, and Su were just then leaving the great hall, discussing just what had happened last night.

"We could have been killed," Susan said.

"I know, lucky Peeves was there to save us, never thought I'd ever have my life saved by Peeves," Harry admitted.

"Lucky that Pansy managed to convince Peeves like that," Su said.

"I just appealed to his better nature," Pansy claimed, "I knew he couldn't pass up pulling off the "best prank ever," he simply couldn't resist."

"I wonder if Peeves really did do all the things we suggested he pull on Quirrell," Su asked.

"I sure did," Peeves said, suddenly appearing just behind them and blowing a loud raspberry in Su's ear, and startling all of them, "he got the stuffing knocked out of him."

"That's awesome!" Pansy answered enthusiastically.

"Gave me plenty of ideas too," he grinned mischievously causing each of them to blanch.

Then Peeves could not resist simply telling them just what had happened, he rarely got to share his exploits with anyone, so it was a welcome treat.

He soon had them laughing at the plight of Quirrell, but were shocked to learn of Voldemort being on the back of Quirrell's head, although Peeves seemed to think it more funny than anything else.

When Peeves finished, Su did something that he would never have expected, and said to him, "thank you Peeves," before kissing him on the cheek, causing him to suddenly turn various colors, from red to purple to polka dot to green.

He tried wiping it away, clearly unsure how to react before promptly disappearing.

"I think you finally silenced him," Susan laughed.

"Who would have thought?" Su answered, laughing somewhat herself.

"Did we just see what we..."

...thought we saw," asked Fred and George, "did someone finally..."

"get one over on Peeves?"

"It looks like it," Susan declared, as the twins had evidently been evesdropping, as least for the last part of the conversation.

"Couldn't help but overhear when we noticed Peeves actually talking to students," Fred stated.

"Oh I would say it was a pretty rare occurrence," Su told them, "especially after I kissed his cheek."

"He's going to want to get back at you for that," George answered.

"I'll be waiting for it," Su replied, "just wanted to see his reaction if I did that."

"Speaking of pranks, I was wondering if I could talk to you about some of the ones you've been pulling on the Slytherins," Susan asked.

"What about them?" Fred asked.

"Well obviously you seem to be focusing your pranks a lot on them, even ones who don't really deserve them like Pansy here," she reminded them.

The twins both looked at Pansy, then back at Susan who at that moment looked just as firm as her aunt could look.

"I'm not going to deny that we've been pulling pranks on the Slytherins," George admitted, "but usually just on the ones who are really stupid like Flint, otherwise we tend to pull pranks equally on the houses."

"Don't want anyone to be left out," Fred added grinning.

"Then who's been doing it so much to all of them?" Susan asked.

"Plenty of students have been doing it," Fred said, "its been crazy lately, even our pranks seem to be getting less attention. I know our younger brother Ron tried to pull some on some of them the other day by putting some laxative into some food to put out for them but of course the idiot left it out and poor Neville ate it instead, he was in the bathroom all day."

"I wish there was a way to get back at him and the others and teach them a lesson," Susan wondered, "did you hear about him challenging Pansy to a duel then not bothering to show up and sick Filch on us instead?"

"No," George asked, "ickle Ronnikins challenged someone to a duel?"

"He did," Pansy confirmed, "even though I think it was never his intention to actually duel me, just get me into trouble instead."

"Ron apparently doesn't know anything about duels," Fred claimed, "only things he knows is what we taught him. If he failed to show up for a duel that he set the time and place for, he's required to accept your counter offer as to where the duel should take place or risk losing his magic."

"As much as we'd love to watch our younger brother have to live as a squib and do all of his chores by hand, I think it would be better for you to beat him in a duel instead, we've tried pranking some sense into him but he apparently doesn't seem to share our views," George added.

"When and where do you want to do it?" Su asked Pansy, still itching for the fight that they were supposed to have had last night.

"A good slytherin waits until the opportune moment to strike," Pansy said mysteriously, "we'll make sure he knows that he has to duel me, but we won't say exactly when to keep him on edge. Often the threat of something is far worse than the actual thing itself."

"Aren't you worried that he might take that time to get more prepared then?" Susan asked.

"Have you seen his study habits?" Pansy asked, "that boy won't do anything to get prepared until perhaps the last minute. As for me however, it'll give me plenty of time to prepare and I'll decide when I really think is the best time whether it be today, tomorrow, or next year."

"We'll at least prank him in the meantime, along with some of the other likely culprits of pranks, wouldn't want them to feel left out either," Fred suggested to George.

"Definitely," agreed George, "pillow turning into spider?"

"Spider blanket," Fred grinned as they hurried off to execute their next prank.

DUELDUELDUEL

The school year drew to a close and still Pansy chose not to duel Ron, although she did start going to more dueling practices along with Susan who agreed to take it up as well not wanting to be the only one not participating and because she had learned some of its value after the incident with Quirrell.

For the end of year feast to announce that Hufflepuff had won the house cup for the first time in over 200 years, Dumbledore decided to allow Peeves to come as part of his reward for helping to defeat Quirrelmort. True a lot of food was being thrown around on his part, but in comparison of his usual behavior he was actually pretty well behaved.

Then the school year finally drew to a close and Harry, Susan, Pansy, and Su all boarded the train, finding their own compartment to sit in.

Pansy was brave enough to rest her head on Harry's shoulder and try and get some rest, while Su went out to go have a look around, leaving both he and Susan alone.

"Are you excited to be going home?" he asked her quietly so as not to awaken a still sleeping Pansy.

"Yes," Susan answered honestly, "but I'll also miss Hogwarts as well."

"Well I'm sure we still have plenty of adventures left there when we go back," he answered.

She nodded and said, "I'm glad you're coming to live with me Harry."

"I am too," he agreed.

"I hope one day you can learn to call it home as well," she admitted.

"I never knew what a home really is until I went to Hogwarts," Harry claimed, "I learned that a home isn't just a place where a family happens to live, its a place where people actually care about you. I think wherever any of you 3 go, I'll always have a home with you."

Susan blushed and said, "then I hope we'll always have a home."

"I certainly hope so," Harry answered as he gazed out the window of the train, "I certainly hope so."

Author's Note: I loved this chapter, I really did, Peeves just seemed so perfect to use to defeat Voldemort with, and it was really fun to write. I kind of ended the rest of the year kind of quickly and held back on the Pansy/Ron duel but there is good reason for that. That will be during the beginning of second year. Thanks everyone, and please read and review.


	12. The Trial

Chapter 12

The Trial

It had already been a few days since getting home on summer holiday, and Harry had been spending time with Susan, playing various games, and riding brooms and Pegasus - Susan's pet flying horse. While he was enjoying the time that he spent with just her, he found himself already missing the other two girls, but he also recognized that they both needed to spend at least a little time with their families, even if neither of them were particularly keen on it, and it would be incredibly short, perhaps only a week before they had been invited by Madame Bones to stay with them for the rest of the summer to both Harry and Susan's gratitude.

One day, however, Susan suggested that they go swimming, to which he readily agreed, even though he had to confess that he didn't actually know how to swim, the Dursleys having never taught him.

After learning that Susan immediately volunteered to teach him.

Putting on a pair of shorts that would just have to serve as his swim trunks, he went out to the pool to find Susan already out there.

It was at this moment that he was suddenly cognizant of something and began feel things that he hadn't entirely felt before as he gazed at Susan, clad only in a red bikini.

He had always known that Susan was rather pretty but it was only now that it was brought even more home.

When he had met Susan she really had no curves to speak of, being still just a young girl, and during school most of the time she was wearing robes which tended to cover up a lot.

Now however he couldn't help but notice how much Susan had grown, not just in height as he couldn't help but stare at her growing chest. They weren't exactly very big yet but enough to get his attention.

Susan however did not immediately notice him staring at her as she was still busy putting on sunscreen but when she looked over at him he was quick to look away.

"Could you help me with my back?" She asked.

"All right." He hastily said, grabbing the bottle and squirting some into his hand before putting it onto her back, entirely aware of just how close he was to her and her rear end that also ended up garnering his attention.

Once he was done, however, he put some on himself and then joined her in the pool allowing Susan to teach him how to swim, being careful not to stare too much, even if it was hard at times.

Over the next few days he practiced swimming with her until the other girls got there and joined them, also doing his best not to stare as the other girls also bared a lot more skin than he was accustomed to seeing on them. While neither of them were anywhere near as developed as other older girls he had seen or even Susan, he also couldn't help but notice how attractive they were becoming.

After swimming one day he noticed Su brushing her hair, and couldn't help but stare at the sight as she brushed out her incredibly long shiny black hair.

She noticed him staring and giggled a bit, before asking, "You want to help brush it for me?"

He nodded, taking the brush from her and brushing it out, once again getting those particular feelings and aware of just how close both he and Su were.

Nevertheless, Su nodded at him when he had finished as he left to go do something else.

"Harry. can I talk to you a moment?" Madame Bones asked him.

"Yes?" He agreed, hurrying over to where the woman was standing.

"I think we need to have a little talk about a few things." She admitted.

"Okay, what about?" He asked.

"I'd like to talk to you about how you are expected to treat my niece, Pansy, Su, and any other girls that you might notice." She told him, "I couldn't help but notice how you've been staring at them."

"I'm sorry-" Harry tried to say.

"It's all right, and to be expected. In fact I think each of them are rather flattered by the attention." Madame Bones explained, "You're a growing boy and right around the age that you start getting certain feelings, particularly towards the opposite gender. That's also why I need to explain a few things so that nothing gets out of hand, as each of the girls are going to be going through similar changes."

Harry fearfully nodded.

"There's nothing to be afraid of Harry, eventually you're going to quite enjoy such changes but if you don't know how to handle them then it becomes a problem." She continued.

She then began explaining things that made him feel a bit uncomfortable to talk about, but he also realized he needed to know. It was informative to say the least, and Madame Bones did a rather good job at explaining, even though he mostly just stood there in silence listening to her.

At the end of it, however he finally asked, "How do I avoid not staring at their... well you know."

"I'm assuming that you mean either their butt or their chest?" Madame Bones concluded.

He nodded.

"Well many young men find that difficult not to do, and some staring is expected just try to keep it from not going too far beyond that as it's important to treat girls with respect. As you may have noticed," Madame Bones said, gesturing at her own admittedly very large chest to demonstrate, "women in the Bones family tend to be rather large in this category and I suspect that Susan will be the same. Just try to remember that Susan is still a person and a friend and that she will need to be properly respected. Just remember, appreciation of their beauty is okay, but outright staring, or leering, is largely not."

She then launched into a few other things, leaving him dazed even after she finally let him go.

As he walked away, Susan, Pansy, and Su were all gathered together eating ice cream cones, and Su giggled, seeming to guess what the conversation had been about.

"It looks like Harry was just given The Talk." She stated.

"How was it?" Susan asked noticing his expression before confessing, "She gave me the talk yesterday."

"It wasn't the best experience of my life, but I'll live." Harry admitted.

"Well you're free to stare at my chest anytime." Susan couldn't resist quipping.

This left him completely without a response with the look of a gaping fish, causing all 3 girls to laugh.

"It's not like I haven't noticed you staring, particularly when we're in the pool." Susan commented, "Its not like you did a very good job hiding it."

"I apparently wasn't that subtle." He confessed, worrying how they would react.

"Don't worry, its okay Harry, we understand." Su told him, grinning mischievously. "Its not like any of us haven't checked you out before too."

"You mean you don't mind?" He asked.

"Actually I'm kind of flattered." Su said, "Why do you think I let you brush my hair? I knew you were attracted to it and I wanted some attention at the time. By the way, you're perfectly free to do so again. You know your way around a hairbrush." She teased.

"It's like my aunt told me, and probably told you," Susan explained, "each of us are going to end up marrying you and doing far more than just staring, but even though that's the case we're still young and still lack experience. We really shouldn't go that far, we're all still young. We should take it slow and one step at a time, but where we're at right now is to be expected and natural and actually in our case good as it is a good thing to be attracted to your future spouse."

"That sounds good to me," Harry replied, "but I still won't be able to help myself looking sometimes."

"For us that's perfectly fine, and I believe I can speak for all of use when I say that we want you to keep looking." Susan responded, "Just don't be expecting anything more from us for awhile."

He nodded, and Pansy decided to save him from further awkward conversation by asking, "Do you want any ice cream Harry?"

DUELDUELDUEL

Over the course of the next week or so he did his best not to stare or feel so awkward around the girls despite their talk with him but it was kind of hard not to as he realized that not only was he currently around 3 very attractive girls, but he would one day be marrying them as well. He still just wasn't sure how to act, yet fortunately or unfortunately, he was given a not so welcome distraction as Madame Bones informed him that the trial with his relatives was coming up in order to ascertain what should be done about the abuse suffered from them. It was... quite the mood killer.

"Are you going to be okay testifying?" Madame Bones asked, sounding worried for him.

"Yes." He answered trying to sound brave, even though he didn't really feel like that. He was honestly terrified of facing his relatives again and explaining right in front of them the abuse that he had suffered at their hands.

"I wouldn't ask you to testify if I could find another way around it," Madame Bones explained, "but since in cases like this where abuse has been suffered and few actual witnesses, the testimony by the victim is important. You have my word however that they will be unable to harm you, and if necessary they will temporarily lose the ability to speak or even if really necessary be removed from the courtroom until the end of the trial."

"I'll do it." He gravely agreed, comforted but still nervous, despite her claim.

"Thank you Harry, I know this is hard on you." she said, giving him a hug to comfort him.

"Thank you for helping me Madame Bones, I don't know how to express all the things that you've done for me." He told her.

When they both drew away from the hug, she told him, "I've actually been thinking that, since I now have custody of you, that it would be nice for you to just call me Amelia."

"Okay, Amelia." Harry answered, testing out the new name.

DUELDUELDUEL

When the trial date finally arrived they all traveled to the Ministry and went into one of the court rooms and sat down, the girls sitting up in the stands on one side of him for moral support while Amelia, who's name he was only just getting used to, sat on his right at a table in the middle of the room to explain the court proceedings to him as they unfolded.

"Minister Fudge actually agreed to judge the proceedings." She explained while everyone began to enter, pointing at the man himself as he went up to sit in the judge's chair at the front, "Since I'm the one filing the case it's required someone with more authority in the Ministry than I do to oversee the trial and pass sentencing, which meant I had to get him to do it. I've gotten him to swear a wizard's oath to keep the news of the trial away from the public. Only those who are required to be here will be present and they are also sworn to secrecy."

Harry watched as a few people entered, which appeared to consist of their attorney Becky Fawcett, who he had a met a few days ago to explain the case a bit to him. She would be trying to case for them as Amelia felt that as she had a personal interest in him as the one now taking custody that it would be better for someone else to actually be the attorney on record even though she had helped a great deal with building the actual case. Mrs. Fawcett gave him a warm handshake and a smile as she took a seat on the other side of him and began opening up her briefcase for her files.

The only other people were Dumbledore, who also sat in the stands, and a man that sat at the other table who Amelia explained was the court appointed lawyer for the defendants, in this case the Dursleys.

After it appeared everyone who needed to be there was there, Fudge began the proceedings.

"Court is now in session." He informed them, "The bailiff will now bring in the accused."

Harry watched as all of the Dursleys entered, first Petunia and Vernon, then followed by Dudley.

As soon as they saw him, Petunia screamed at him, "You little freak, how dare you say such things about us to these other freaks?" She made a lunge at him, but fortunately the bailiff stopped her by hitting her with a spell from his wand that immediately froze her.

"How dare you work your freak work on my wife," Vernon roared attempting to hit the bailiff.

The bailiff immediately froze him as well.

"That will be enough," Fudge declared as both of them began to come to, looking slightly dazed, "otherwise I will be forced to take further actions unless you can behave yourselves."

Both of them still looked upset, but nodded.

"Bailiff Shacklebolt, you have the right to take any preventative actions should they be necessary." Fudge told the large black man serving as the bailiff.

"I have them in handcuffs but should they attempt to start any further problems I'm prepared to act." Shacklebolt informed the Minister.

Shacklebolt then glared at each of the Dursleys to make sure they understood he was not bluffing before escorting them to their seats at a table a distance away from where he and Amelia were sitting.

"Let's get started then..." Fudge began, "We are here today to settle the matter of child abuse rendered to Mr. Harry James Potter, formerly of 4 Privet Drive, by the hands of both Vernon and Petunia Dursley. How do the defendants plead?"

"Not guilty." Petunia declared, "We only rendered punishment that was necessary to make sure he learned proper discipline."

It appeared that the Dursleys and their lawyer had managed to come up with some kind of defense, even though they hadn't been able to help their sudden outburst upon arriving in the courtroom which would certainly weaken their position.

"Mrs. Fawcett, if you would begin." Fudge asked of their own lawyer, who stood up to hand Fudge a document.

"We hereby present a case against the defendants Mr. and Mrs. Dursley and accuse them of willful wrongful child abuse and neglect which went beyond that of ordinary discipline and left permanent physical, emotional, and mental damage upon my client that could have easily resulted in his possible death. Let the record show that they are Muggles but are still subject to punishment in accordance with our laws as a result of their actions against a wizard. Over the course of the trial I will be delivering incontrovertible proof that such abuse and neglect did take place, and that maximum sentencing in this case is warranted."

"Mr. Smith, if you would please give your opening statement." Fudge then asked the man serving as the Dursleys' lawyer.

Harry noted that the man obviously was not happy to be here, or have to work the case, but he did his best to do an adequate job nevertheless.

"The Dursleys do not deny that punishment did occur but was well within the bounds of ordinary punishment that any parent or guardian might render to a child." He began.

At this Amelia scoffed silently, just loud enough for Harry to hear.

"Therefore they should be exempt from any punishment that they might stand accused of receiving." Smith concluded.

"Mrs. Fawcett if you would please call your first witness?" Fudge asked of their attorney.

"We would first like to call Madame Amelia Bones to the stand." She declared.

Amelia got up from her chair, placing her hand on his shoulder for a brief moment before going and sitting in the chair in front near Fudge, taking a wizard's oath to tell the truth before hand.

"Please explain in your own words what happened on the night of December 16th." Becky asked.

"I had invited Harry Potter and two of his friends to accompany my niece Susan and spend the Christmas holidays with us at our house." Amelia began, "While there I became aware that Harry had been injured and, acting according, went to assess the damage and in so doing discovered evidence of many older injuries that had been done upon his person, primarily in places that would normally be covered up and so would not normally be so easily discovered. In questioning Harry he was reluctant to admit the causes of such scars but finally admitted that they had been suffered at the hands of the Dursleys, including one Dudley Dursley, who is however a minor and therefore is not automatically linked into an adult case."

"I'd like to now move to have one Dudley Dursley also simultaneously stand trial for his participation in these events." Becky explained to Fudge, producing yet another document.

"Granted." Fudge declared, before allowing her to continue.

"As evidence for such scars I'd like to present exhibit A." Becky said, pulling out a weird little black device that, with a click, illuminated a large picture of his back, followed by his legs, and front torso.

"These have been authenticated and proven to belong to one Harry James Potter." She declared to all of them, with several of them, including Fudge and Mr. Smith, looking at the pictures with revulsion on their faces."

"Let it also be known that Harry James Potter confessed to the witness that such abuse was rendered by the hands of his relatives." Becky then continued again, "Many of the scars after these pictures were scrutinized by a trained medi-wizard and found to date back many years, as early as 5 years old. I have a sworn affidavit by him proving such, but he has also agreed to testify if necessary."

The case began to draw on, and Harry began to grow bored as Becky produced even more witnesses and Mr. Smith doing his best to rebut them, insisting that the scars could have come from anywhere, although even he seemed to know that his argument was flimsy at best even if it was the best one that could be offered as more and more evidence began to mount against him.

Finally Harry was called to the stand, as he explained in great detail the abuse that he had suffered even though haltingly. Yet when he got to one particular story about being hit over the head with a hot frying pan by Aunt Petunia back when he was 5 when he had accidentally burned the dinner he was supposed to be cooking, it caused Aunt Petunia who had been able to maintain composure until then to have another outburst.

"You little freak, how dare you say such lies!" She yelled, trying desperately to get up and get him again.

She didn't even manage to get fully out of her chair however before she was hit again by Shacklebolt.

"Please escort the witness out of the court room until sentencing." Fudge demanded.

"You aren't taking my wife anywhere!" Vernon yelled before also getting hit.

Shacklebolt was then forced to take them out, followed by Dudley, while they waited for them to leave before resuming.

His various experiences shared evidently were rather powerful as it left nearly everyone in tears, including Fudge and Mr. Smith who was to his credit doing his best to keep them in so as to still maintain himself as a fair lawyer to the Dursleys.

"Harry," Becky gently explained as she noticed just what kind of a fragile state he was in at the moment, "its okay if you'd like to leave now, we'll call you back in during sentencing, its going to be awhile."

Harry nodded, and got up and left the courtroom, followed by the 3 girls.

"Are you okay Harry?" Susan gently asked, giving him a hug, and allowing him to continue crying on her shoulder.

"I just didn't realize it would be so hard, explaining all of that, in front of other people. It was especially hard in front of my relatives. If the bailiff hadn't held them back I'm sure they would have done something." He answered quietly.

"Shhh, its okay, Harry, its okay." Susan gently soothed him, "They can't hurt you anymore."

"What if the trial goes bad?" Harry said, venting that part of him that still somehow believed that his fate was inescapable and that he would have to go back to them.

"No way that's ever going to happen, my Aunt's spent countless hours helping Mrs. Fawcett build a case for you." Susan told him with absolute confidence, "They wouldn't let you down and neither would we. My aunt would break the law and bust you out of there if we somehow lost and you were forced to go back with them."

The idea that she would break the law was rather comical as she was usually so law-abiding but realized that she probably would if she felt she had to.

"No one is going to get you, we're all in this together." Su stated, lending her support.

"Come on let's go check out the magic fountain." Pansy suggested, referring to the huge fountain they had passed on their way to the courtroom.

"Yeah that's a great idea," Susan agreed, "we should be back before they get done."

Harry chose to accompany the girls to the fountain, and silently watch the water spout from various locations from the wizard, the witch, the goblin, and the house elf.

As he was doing, so standing there, someone accidentally bumped into him, knocking him over.

"Wotcher!" The 17 year old looking young witch said with an upbeat smile, "Sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going." She bent down to help him up.

"Thanks." He said.

"Its my fault, I was a bit preoccupied. I have a job interview in an hour, I'm a bit nervous." She confessed.

He looked at her for a second and noticing her appearance, with bubblegum pink hair yet wearing some nice black dress robes, obviously for her interview.

"I'm Tonks by the way." She continued.

"I'm-" Harry began to introduce himself.

"Harry Potter, I know, I've seen all of you around at school last year." Tonks said, seeming unaffected by his fame status earning immediate respect for her, "How do I look? Do you think I look okay?"

"The hair doesn't seem to work." Su confessed.

"Ooh right, better fix that." She answered, suddenly causing her hair to change to a light brown.

"How did you do that?" Susan asked.

"I'm a Metamorphagus," Tonks confessed, "I can change any part of my body at will."

"Any part of your body?" Su asked.

"Sure!" Tonks replied, suddenly causing her mouth to form into a duck's bill momentarily before changing it back again.

"That's wicked cool," Su stated, "I don't think I've ever met a Metamorphagus before, it must be such a useful talent."

"They're pretty rare, and it has come in handy many times." Tonks confirmed, "I'm hoping that it helps me for my interview, I'm applying to be an Auror."

"I was wanting to be an Auror too." Harry confessed, "In fact me and Su are planning to be in the young auror program."

"I was in that for the last 4 years." Tonks admitted, "Its hard work, but definitely useful, and I already know a lot of the Aurors from it and they tend to look at if you've gone through that program on your resume so I'm hoping that gives me an edge to get the job."

"I'm sure you'll do fine." Harry said.

"I'm actually surprised you got into the program though at such young ages, I'm betting you have to be either really good or you know someone?" Tonks replied.

"I'd say both, they are both exceptional duelists," Susan told her, " but my aunt is the head of magical law enforcement and she's the one who got them in."

"You're Madame Bones niece?" Tonks asked with surprise.

Susan smiled, used to this look of surprise by now, although Tonks was surprised for a different reason.

"I'm just a bit shocked I ran into my potential future boss of my boss' niece." Tonks confessed.

"Don't worry, I'll put in a good word for you if I see her." Susan grinned again.

"Put in a good word for whom?" Amelia asked coming up behind Tonks, causing her to jump a few inches off the floor.

"Nymphadora Tonks, pleased to make your acquaintance." Tonks said now sounding even more nervous.

"Tonks is applying for a job as an Auror." Susan explained.

"Are you now?" Amelia asked of Tonks.

"Yes Ma'am." Tonks replied.

"We could always use more Aurors, we're currently losing more than we can replace them with, too many retirements and quitting, it can be a stressful dangerous job, but I always enjoyed it back when I was an Auror." Amelia reminisced, "Is Robards doing the interviewing?"

"Yes, Ma'ame." Tonks politely replied again.

Turning back to them, Amelia then said, "I was just coming to check on you and see how you were doing, when I didn't see you outside the courtroom I guessed you'd come here."

"How is the trial going?" Susan asked.

"Pretty good, in my experience with court cases I'd say we pretty much have it in the bag, its merely a formality at this point, the evidence is too strong. Smith is doing his best to provide a decent defense, but I think even he knows its a lost cause."

Tonks had been standing to the side and listening in, even though she had no idea what they were talking about, but then chose to take her leave.

"I think I'd better get to my interview now." Tonks said as she walked off with each of them wishing their goodbyes to her.

After she had left Harry asked, "How much longer do you think they'll be?"

"I'd guess another hour, with closing remarks and time for Fudge to make his deliberations." Susasn's Aunt deduced, "How about I take you all to see where I work and also just where Harry and Su will be doing their young Auror program while we wait?"

She led them to her office, allowing them to view the vast mahogany table loaded down with paperwork as it was, and introduce them to her secretary, Winter Summers.

The Auror training room where they would be doing much of the program was far more interesting however, as it was set up in an obstacle course type setting, full of various walls to climb over, netting to climb under, and various training dummies to hit along the way.

"Pretty cool huh?" Madame Bones asked them.

They all nodded, and Madame Bones decided it was now time for them to get back so they did so, arriving to find that Fudge had just left to make deliberations.

However, they only needed to wait a few minutes before Fudge came back with his decision, and all of the Dursleys were allowed back in to hear the ruling.

"After deliberation I have decided to side against the defendants and therefore charge them with willful child abuse and neglect, and have opted to go with the maximum sentence of 7 years for both Vernon and Petunia Dursley in Azkaban in minimum security."

Both of them opened their mouths to speak, but Kingsley pointed his wand in their faces forcing them to be silent.

"I further find that as a condition their son Dudley Dursley be placed into the care of his closest adult living relative willing to take him, and also be required to go to anger management counseling. As there is also some concern over his general health. He will also be required over the summer to attend a muggle health camp to help him lose weight by the name of Weight Losers."

"That's a fat camp!" Dudley yelled angrily, "I'm not going to no fat camp or no counseling."

Fudge grinned and said, "Very well the other option is to enroll you in St. Brutus' School for Incurably Criminal Boys."

That immediately clammed up Dudley, earning a small laugh from Harry.

"As for Harry Potter, he shall be remanded into the custody of one Amelia Bones, but as per request this information will be stricken from court records. I remind you all that you are under oath not to reveal it. Court is now adjourned," Fudge announced, now watching the completely distraught looking Dursleys be led away by Kingsley.

"So its over?" Harry asked, still hardly able to believe it.

"Yes." Amelia said, giving him a hug, "Welcome to the family, Harry, you'll never have to be with the Dursleys again."

Harry gave her a hug back, grateful to finally be free of his relatives.

Author's Note: Harry had the talk a bit early but under the circumstances of him being betrothed to the girls and spending so much time with them, I can see why Madame Bones would feel that it was warranted. Also hope that you are satisfied with the Dursley's punishments as although I'm sure that most of you would prefer them being tortured for 100 years, or forced into slavery working in a slime pit, their punishments had to be at least within the realm of it being believable.

Please Read and Review. Thanks.


	13. Making New Friends

Chapter 13

Making New Friends

"Are you ready?" Su asked excitedly for the 5th time. It was the day that they would be going to the ministry for their Auror training program, and Su still kept trying to get him to move faster with getting ready so they could leave, ignoring the fact that it wasn't even time to go anyway.

Still she seemed to look at him with expectant eyes, and he finally declared after stuffing the granola bars into his bag that he was ready.

"Let's go," she told him, grabbing his hand and leading him off to where Amelia was.

"Come on Madame Bones," Su told her after she found her.

Grinning at the girl's obvious impatience, she said what he had already said, "its still not time to go Su, they won't be ready for us if we show up early."

Su huffed at having to wait, causing both him and Amelia to laugh.

"All right how about while we wait I give you a few things," Amelia told them, reaching behind her back and pulling out a couple of books, handing one of each to both of them."

"These are just some of my old auror training manuals," Amelia told them, "I figured you might find a use for them."

As Harry looked through his, he found that it was rather informative on how to handle various situations that an auror might find themselves in.

After looking through it a bit, he swapped with Su to find out if hers was any different, and he found that hers detailed some of the spells that an auror could legally use.

"I figured you could share," Amelia explained.

"You weren't going to leave without saying goodbye were you?" Susan asked each of them, coming into the room with Pansy. They would not be coming with them, but they also wanted to make sure they said goodbye even though they would be back at the end of each day that the program went on.

"Of course he wasn't," Pansy said, quickly giving both him and Su hugs.

"Now is it time to go?" Su asked Amelia again.

Amelia glanced at her watch before nodding.

"Then let's go," Su said, still behaving like a child going to an amusement park.

With both of them then grabbing onto Amelia, and one final goodbye to Susan and Pansy, they apparated out and then into the ministry atrium.

Following Amelia, they made their way back to the auror department they had already seen, and approached the front desk.

"Madame Bones," the secretary said respectfully.

"I'm here to see Scrimgeour," Amelia informed her.

"Of course, he told me to expect you and to let you right into his office, he'll be in shortly," the secretary said, allowing the 3 of them to enter Scrimgeour's office.

While they waited Harry looked around the office, noticing that it was the sort of office that seemed to perform solely function, no pictures on the walls, everything neat and organized, there was absolutely nothing that didn't seem to fulfill an actual purpose.

"Scrimgeour can be a bit dull, but he's dedicated and keeps everyone in line," Madame Bones explained to them.

"Madame Bones," a tall dark haired man said to her, then entering the room, "on time as usual."

"Hello Scrimgeour, I'm here to drop off the students that are part of the auror-in-training program, this is Harry Potter, and his fiancee Su."

Scrimgeour shook both of their hands, first Su, and then him, and as he did so looked into his eyes, "well I certainly wasn't expecting to see you here so soon Mr. Potter, although I guessed you'd become an auror one day, just seemed like you were always meant to."

"Come now Scrimgeour, Harry is still young and I'm sure hasn't entirely decided yet what he's going to do as far as his career," Amelia chided.

"Of course," Scrimgeour agreed, "although I would be less than honest in saying that I'd like to try my best to recruit him."

"Harry is still only a 11 not even quite 12 year old boy, and I would highly recommend you at least let him grow up a bit first and seen his potential in becoming an auror before you start handing out job offers," Amelia told him.

Scrimgeour was quick to apologize but none of them were fooled when Scrimgeour's motives were already so plainly seen. As far as Harry felt himself, while it was nice to already have someone with a potential job offer for him already, he'd prefer to be judged for his actual prowess, not simply because he was the boy who lived.

"If you want to leave them with me Madame Bones, I'll take care of them, and you can pick them up at the end of the day," Scrimgeour told her.

"Are you going to be alright?" Madame Bones asked the two of them.

"We'll be fine," Su answered, and Harry nodded as well.

"Very well, I'll pick you up when I get done with work," she told them before leaving.

"Now then," Scrimgeour said, reaching onto the top of his desk and handing each of them a small booklet, "this is what you will be covering over the course of the training, usually we have older applicants so it may be a bit advanced for you. We might have to adjust it."

"Give us the best you've got," Su declared, "I'm sure we can handle anything you throw at us."

Scrimgeour actually beamed at this remark and said, "all right, why don't each of you take a look at your booklets on the way down to the obstacle course room. You'll be trained by different aurors each day, but I've taken time out of my schedule to handle today for you."

They nodded and he led them down to the room that Amelia had already shown them.

"The obstacle course room is designed to change based off of the level of difficulty we want it to be, I've elected to keep it at the most basic level," Scrimgeour told them, "you will be required to go through each obstacle and hit the training dummies along the way before moving on. You may begin when ready."

Su looked over at Harry and he knew exactly what she was thinking, she had given him this look many a time while duel training and exercising. She wanted to race him.

He nodded, giving her the signal for them to start at the same time.

Each of them went off like a shot, jumping over the first obstacle, a wooden log before moving on through a barrel, and then on and on, having to hit various training dummies, that because of being at such a low level simply sat there and were at point blank range. Personally Harry thought this obstacle course rather easy, but he supposed they had to start somewhere and there was no real way for Scrimgeour to know where they were at.

Still neck and neck they rushed through it finally finishing out of breath, with Su putting on one last big burst of speed to edge him out.

"Fantastic job!" Scrimgeour declared as they came to a halt in front of him, "I wouldn't have expected you to do so well being only just barely done with first year."

"We've already had a lot of training," Harry explained to him.

"Madame Bones mentioned that but I couldn't be sure until I saw for myself," Scrimgeour said.

Scrimgeour appeared to now be looking at both of them now, seeming to already thinking of recruiting them when Su asked, "what's next?"

Scrimgeour was about to reply when someone from the opposite end of the room called them by name.

"Harry! Su!" the voice called, and as they spun to look at them they noticed that it was Tonks.

"Hey Tonks," Harry greeted her, noticing the new auror badge on her chest, "I see you got the job."

"Yep I sure did," she answered, "someone mentioned that you two were down here right now training and I just had to see you for a bit."

Then as she looked over at Scrimgeour who seemed to be looking at her as if she was wasting valuable time spent elsewhere she amended that for him.

"Also because Robards wanted to talk to you about the new body armor that just arrived," Tonks told him.

"Excellent, about time they got here," Scrimgeour said, "very well why don't you watch these kids until I return."

Tonks nodded as Scrimgeour left while they got into a conversation of just what the training would be like as Tonks had already gone through it multiple times when she was younger.

"I'm actually hoping they'll have me train alongside you sometimes," Tonks confessed.

"We hope so too," Su answered.

When Scrimgeour finally came back, however, Tonks was forced to take her leave and they went back to training.

DUELDUELDUEL

Over the course of the next several weeks, Harry and Su were continually trained and on occasion with Tonks, going through the obstacle course as well as learned various spells and how to act as an auror, learning the spells that aurors often used, but were still at a level of ability that they could do. Scrimgeour and most of the aurors were certainly impressed with whatever they managed to accomplish, even going so far as to claim them as prodigies. Harry wasn't sure if he would go that far, but he was beginning to realize that he really did have a knack for this sort of work.

The only exception to the constant praise they both received was from Auror Moody, who instead of constant praise was all about constant vigilance, the guy seemed totally paranoid but he was assured by Madame Bones and the rest of the aurors that he was the best.

Indeed he seemed to push them both harder than even they themselves realized they could go, something that they had learned to enjoy, pushing themselves even harder.

Moody usually wouldn't praise them, but they knew that he had gained respect for them, as they found out from Scrimgeour that Moody had requested to take the time to train them even more.

At the very last day of the training, Moody decided to surprise them and really test them.

"I've decided to have you do the obstacle course at its highest setting," Moody declared, "Scrimgeour might think it would be too difficult or dangerous for you, but I believe different, you've got to be prepared and you've got to really be tested or you'll never reach your potential."

Lining up with Su, he got ready at the starting line and they both started out.

The first obstacle was a hoop of fire that they had to jump through and he did so, followed quickly by Su, both of them recognizing that this was no time for games or trying to win a race, this obstacle course was dangerous and needed their full concentration.

Next they were forced to enter a snake pit, which he doubted were actually venomous but could still cause some harm.

Firing incendio spells near the snakes to keep them away from them, they continued forward past them before moving on to a rock wall that they had to climb, only to discover there was no rope and the walls too slippery for them to scale.

"Let me levitate you over," Harry told Su and she nodded as he pointed his wand at her, allowing her to be lifted on top of the wall before she did the same from her vantage point, careful not to lose her balance in the process.

Moving on, they continued through the obstacle course and made their way through the various obstacles, finally finishing after having to take down half a dozen training dummies that were firing spells at them.

"Good work," Moody said as he stopped his stopwatch, the first time he had ever actually praised them, "but you'll have to do better than that if you want to be an auror, we don't just let anyone in you know."

Privately he figured that was true but not in the way Moody was thinking, Scrimgeour wouldn't just let anyone in, he would however let him in.

At that moment, Amelia showed up to collect them.

"Are you ready to go?" she asked.

"Yes," Harry answered her.

As she glanced around she noticed the still up obstacle course.

"Moody tell me you didn't use the maximum setting obstacle course on them?" she demanded of him

"They needed to be prepared," Moody said simply.

"They can be prepared without being put in such danger," she answered, not amused, "I'd imagine you weren't planning on telling me."

"If it makes you feel any better they passed it without so much as a scratch on them," he told her.

"It really wasn't that bad," Su told her, "it was actually kind of fun."

"I think I have a good idea of just what your idea of fun is by now and that's what I'm afraid of," Amelia replied.

Still upset that Moody had done that, she took them home.

As soon as they arrived, Susan and Pansy were there to welcome them back, giving them both big hugs.

"Take it easy," Harry said as he felt like he was in danger of being crushed by Susan.

"We just missed you that's all," she informed him.

"We were only gone for the day," he answered.

"Yes but we've been bored all day, in fact most of the time you haven't been here, it'll be nice to finally have you back," she responded.

"Well I hate to burst your bubble but we'll be leaving to go to the duel tournament next week," he said.

"All of us will be going to that however, and Susan and Pansy can stay with you for most of that," Amelia replied.

"That'll be fun if only to watch," Pansy said.

"It'll be fun to participate too," Su said, stabbing her wand as if it was a sword and no doubt imagining dueling there.

"I'm hoping that it'll also be a learning opportunity for each of you to get to know wizards from other countries and their various cultures," reminded Amelia.

"Where is it being held again?" Pansy asked.

"Panama," she informed her.

"Right, I always seem to forget the name, kind of strange as a a name," Pansy admitted.

"That's because its foreign," Susan said, as if this was all the explanation needed.

"Well at any rate it will certainly be a grand adventure," Amelia told them, "I've taken the liberty of purchasing language lozenges for each of you in Spanish so you'll at least understand the language of the host country."

"Language lozenge?" Harry queried.

"Its a kind of candy that causes you to automatically learn a different language," Amelia explained, "its what has allowed some wizards to learn literally hundreds of languages. The only downside to them is that they are difficult to get as the ministry highly regulates their use, probably another attempt to keep us more isolated and ignorant of other countries in my opinion but I've simply been too busy with other things to work on getting it opened up more to the public. At the very least I managed to get them."

After setting down their things, they each took one.

"I don't feel any different," Pansy said, "I don't think I still know a single Spanish word."

"That's because it only works when someone speaks Spanish to you, and then your brain will translate it into English for you. For example como esta?"

Harry's mind heard the Spanish words but then also heard it as English.

"Weird," he said, but what really came out was what he guessed was the Spanish equivalent for it.

"You see," Amelia said, switching back to English, as long as you hear Spanish you'll be able to reply back in that language.

"You wouldn't happen to have any other languages would you?" Pansy asked.

"I did manage to get some french and Mandarin Chinese if you'd like them," admitted Amelia, "I figured they might come in handy as well. I couldn't take too many as even for me its still highly regulated."

"That would probably be beneficial," Harry answered.

"We can practice using Mandarin," Su said, "I know that language already from my time living in China."

After taking the two additional lozenges each, they spent the rest of the night speaking in Mandarin to each other. It was weird but also fun at the same time.

DUELDUELDUEL

They had to take a Muggle airplane to get to Panama, as it was too far for them to apparate. It was the first time that Harry, Susan, or Pansy had flown in an airplane, and both Susan and Pansy were rather skeptical that the plane could actually be trusted to fly without any magic.

Still the plane lifted off and flew without any problems, except a slight amount of turbulence which freaked out Pansy, but he reminded her that flying a broom you experienced much worse from strong gusts of wind.

Upon arriving, Amelia managed to get a local wizard to take them the rest of the way to the tournament by riding a flying horse cart, that had been turned invisible so Muggles wouldn't notice as they traveled over various cities and villages, most of which looked rather poor quality in comparison to what they were used to. However they also traveled over lush jungle that looked beautiful from up above. When they finally got to their destination they went to a hotel room that Amelia had reserved for their use, and as they looked around the room, they noticed that it was a really nice room in definite comparison to what they had seen before flying over Panama.

"Won't the muggles notice a major tournament going on?" Susan asked.

"No, this is actually an all wizard area," Amelia explained, "the Panamanian wizards cut a deal with the Muggle government, and they agreed to allow wizards their own area to live in that would be safe from Muggle influence. The whole area is sectioned off and cloaked with various spells to prevent Muggles from ever being able to get in here."

This probably also explained why the city here looked far nicer and cleaner than what they had seen before as magic tended to make a lot of things easier.

"I believe I made sure that Flitwick got the room right next to ours," Amelia informed them, "you're welcome to check."

"Let's go see," Su said, grabbing Harry's arm and once again displaying her impatient side.

They went to the door next door and knocked on it.

It was immediately opened by a grinning Flitwick.

"Hello children, I was wondering when you would arrive," he said.

"We just got here Professor," Harry said.

Flitwick nodded, "well at least now I can finally take you to check out the competition."

After going back to tell Amelia just where they were going and asking if Pansy and Susan would like to come, both of which declined, opting to take a nap after the long trip there.

They left just the two of them then, heading through the hotel to see all the various obviously foreign wizards from various countries.

"This is the world dueling championship," Flitwick explained, "so wizards from every conceivable country will be represented, and includes some of the ones that are purely magical."

"There are magical countries?" Harry asked.

"Yes, several in fact although they aren't actually generally known about by Muggles, they prefer it that way. The country of Atlantis for example has been cloaked in various spells to prevent muggles from ever actually finding it. Its caused some problems actually sometimes messing with various muggle instruments and the like, but they've been getting better at avoiding that."

"So who are going to be our stiffest competition do you think?" Su asked, "I'm guessing the Chinese for one, they were really well known there. Lao Feng the current reigning world champion in our age group is from there."

"China is definitely the biggest threat, they tend to sweep a great deal of the tournament, they'll be hard to beat," Flitwick admitted, "the United States typically tend to do pretty well as well."

"How has Britain typically fared?" Harry asked.

"We actually haven't had too many people compete in recent years," Flitwick said sadly, "not since the dueling class was canceled, we haven't gotten past the first round in over a decade in any age bracket and that's assuming we even had someone try for it. Normally I would have a competition at Hogwarts to see who would be allowed to go as each country is only allowed one boy and one girl, or one man and one woman to compete in each age bracket, but of course under the circumstances with no one else applying you both automatically qualified."

"How do you know we'll do okay then?" Harry asked, now worried, who knew what kind of competition they could be facing?

"I can honestly say that you are the best duelists I have ever had the pleasure to teach," Flitwick said, "I expect you both to go far."

Glad at the confidence that Flitwick placed with them, they left the hotel and were about to walk down the street when they saw several people just coming in.

That was when Harry saw perhaps the most beautiful girl he had ever seen.

She was a few years older than him with silvery blonde waist length hair and a very curvy figure that would have gotten any boy's attention. She was in a word, gorgeous.

However much he couldn't help but be entranced by the girl, he also noticed her two companions, a younger girl who looked even younger than him with the same silvery-blonde waist length hair and a older man who looked to be both of the girls' father. He seemed to recognize Flitwick however.

"Flitwick!" the man said, bending over and embracing their Charms Professor.

Flitwick evidently knew him too because he returned the hug.

"Harry and Su this is Jean Delacour one of the best students I ever trained in dueling before he decided to move back to France," introduced Flitwick to them.

Both of them nodded at him.

"I wasn't expecting to see you here Jean," Flitwick said as they pulled apart, "I heard that you already retired years ago."

"I'm here for my daughters," Jean said pointing to the two girls, "that's one reason why I chose to retire so I could train them."

Flitwick's eyebrows rose, "I never would have guessed you would end up being a dueling instructor yourself, but good for you!"

"They won me over after I saw the potential they had, I first started with my oldest Fleur and just this last year my youngest Gabrielle was finally old enough to compete," explained Jean, "but what about you? Couldn't stay away from the dueling scene?"

"I finally found some new talent," Flitwick praised, "I think they'd even give you a run for your money back when you were younger."

"Are these them then?" Jean asked.

"Yes, this is Su Li, and Harry Potter," Flitwick announced.

All 3 Delacours eyebrows rose, surprised at hearing his name, evidently it was known even outside of Britain.

"I'm pleased to meet you," Jean said, shaking their hands, "these are my daughters Fleur and Gabrielle."

Harry could only nod at both the girls, but Su said in English to the younger one, "I'm pleased to meet you."

When the girl seemed confused, Su realized she probably only spoke French or not enough English to understand her and so said it again in French, and this time the girl responded back with the French equivalent.

"You speak French?" the older girl asked in French.

"We both do," Harry said, surprising even himself in responding to her. He was fully aware that his act of staring had certainly caught the attention of both the girls, and Su who would no doubt tease him about it later, but it seemed that he was regaining his voice.

The girl seemed equally surprised for some reason, but she didn't say why.

"So you two are from Britain?" Gabrielle then asked, also in French.

"Yes," Su answered, "your father mentioned that you would be competing but aren't you a little young?"

Su wasn't all that tactful but Gabrielle didn't seem to take offense and said, "I'm actually 11 almost 12 but I'm a veela so we tend to look much younger until we hit puberty."

"What's a veela?" Harry asked, "I was raised outside of the wizarding world."

"Its a type of magical being," Fleur explained, "we're only a quarter veela but we got the genes for it. We tend to be very beautiful women and have an allure that causes men to be insatiably attracted to us. I'm a little surprised you held yourself together so well around me, but I just assumed you weren't old enough to like girls yet."

"Believe me he definitely likes girls," Su answered for him.

"Well in any case its nice to have an actual conversation for once," Fleur replied, "its gotten rather annoying to be honest."

"So what do you think about the competition? Su asked, instantly sparking a conversation as they debated who would win, and what would be the best duels to watch.

Harry found it kind of nice to have other people to talk with besides Su about it who also seemed to know what they were talking about. Fleur and Gabrielle even were nice enough to give them some advice, to which they reciprocated.

"When is your first duel?" Fleur asked eventually.

"Ours isn't for another couple of days," Harry answered.

"Gabrielle's is tomorrow," Fleur informed them, "you want to go practice with us right now?"

"Wouldn't that be giving away trade secrets or something?" Su asked.

"We don't mind if you don't," Gabrielle said, "besides Fleur isn't even in our age bracket, and I know that Britain and France have totally opposite brackets as well so we shouldn't face each other until the finals if we even manage to go that far. Of course by then you'll have had a chance to see how I duel anyway fighting my competition."

That did seem to make sense, Harry thought.

"All right, where is it?" he asked, choosing to leave the still animatedly talking Flitwick and Jean Delacour, hoping that they wouldn't mind terribly if they left to go somewhere.

They led him over to a building that he supposed must have been erected from the tournament because it looked brand new and as he entered it, its walls were lined with rooms with dueling platforms.

After finally finding one that was empty, they went inside.

"You want to duel me Harry?" Fleur asked.

"Then after wards I'll duel you," Gabrielle announced to Su.

With all of them agreeing, Harry got ready opposite of Fleur and began the duel.

She launched a stunner at him immediately and he was forced to leap out of the way, but in so doing launched a spell of his own, something that Flitwick had taught him, when being attacked, if possible always counterattack to keep them also on the defensive.

She continued firing spells and he quickly realized what her strategy and her strength lay in: charms.

Almost every spell she used was a different kind of charm, some designed to hit him, and others to keep him distracted.

There was no question she was the better duelist, although he liked to think it was because of her greater experience. If anything however, he realized he was holding his own at least.

He very nearly caught her with a disarming spell but she managed to avoid it just in time, even though her wand nearly came out of her hand anyway.

She seemed determined however not to let him win, and when he finally got hit with a disarming spell he wasn't too upset.

"You did really well, much better than I would have ever thought," she told him.

"The same to you, I knew you would win," he told her.

"I merely got lucky," she said, blowing off the praise, "my father is a good teacher but he would always say that Flitwick taught him everything he knows. It appears Flitwick did just as good a job teaching you."

"I put a lot of practice in," he told her.

"I want to see if Su is just as good," Gabrielle announced.

"Better," Harry said.

"In physical combat definitely, but magical Harry I'd say is better by now," Su said.

"We'll see," Gabrielle said.

"Gabby is better than I ever was at her age, I wouldn't be surprised if she wins the whole tournament," Fleur then praised her sister before looking over at the two of them, "although she might have some competition."

"Stop it," Gabrielle said, blushing, "I don't think I'm that good."

As she and Su began dueling however he had to concede that Fleur just might have a point. Gabrielle still looked like she was 8 and looked incredibly small and young to be a duelist, but she really knew her stuff, and just how powerful her spells could be was amazing to believe they could come from such a small person.

Yet he had learned long ago from dueling Su that size simply did not matter, if anything it only made you a smaller, less easy to hit target.

As they continued to duel, circling each other even as they did he realized that even Su seemed to be challenged by the young French girl.

"Seuderomi," Gabrielle yelled out as a burst of magic leaped from her wand.

Harry was perplexed as the spell seemed very poorly aimed fired over 5 feet to the right of Su, and then dissipated on its own. He couldn't see why someone with Gabrielle's obvious skill would have had such poor aim.

Su seemed confused as well but chose not to question it as she launched a spell of her own which Gabrielle dodged.

That's when Gabrielle fired a spell at Su's left shoulder, which caused Su to move to the right, before firing yet another also forcing her to move to the right again, and that's when her spell's delayed reaction struck, causing Su to immediately drop onto the ground unconscious.

"What did you do to her?" Harry asked Gabrielle.

"Delayed reaction spell, it hovers invisibly in the air for a bit. If you can get someone to move into it before it goes away it'll knock them out," Gabrielle explained.

Harry nodded, as Fleur was nice enough to bring Su back to consciousness.

Dazedly she grinned and said, "Harry I think we've got some competition."

Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed the chapter, please review now. Thanks.


	14. The Price of Friendship

Author's Note: Sorry everyone about the hiatus, I was pretty bogged down with other stuff unfortunately more important than finishing this chapter. I also ended up simply scrapping what I had already written for this chapter as it was far too cliché and boring for my taste. I like this version better.

Chapter Fourteen

The Price of Friendship

Harry was still sleeping when he was woken with a start.

"Harry?" A voice asked quietly, now standing over him and the couch he had been sleeping on.

"Yes?" He answered blearily, now recognizing the voice to be Pansy's.

"Can I talk to you?" She asked him nervously.

"Sure." He replied, getting out of bed. If she had taken the time to wake him up, he supposed it must be important.

She led him out of their hotel room and into the hallway outside, where there was another couch outside. Sitting down, he asked her what was going on.

"I keep having nightmares." She confessed.

"I'm sorry." Harry tried to say.

"They're about you and me." She further admitted, "I keep dreaming that someone takes you away from me. Malfoy, my father, a monster, anything."

She unexpectedly threw her arms around him in a hug, which he returned, recognizing that she must need comforting.

"Its okay, nothing is going to happen to you," he soothed.

"You don't know that..." She answered, before getting up to look directly into his eyes, "but there is a way to make sure nothing can happen."

"How so?" He asked.

"I could bind myself to you." She suggested.

"You could what?" he asked.

"I could bind myself to you, its a ritual where a witch can choose to bind themselves to a wizard, effectively making them that wizard's property." She explained.

"You mean like a slave?" He answered, shocked.

"It would depend on the severity of the bond." Pansy explained hesitantly, "The one I'm talking about would be the most basic, where I'd still have rights and essentially have what I have now, but it would prevent me from ever being able to be with anyone else without your permission."

"What if I died?" Harry asked.

"If I were able to see you just before you died, you could relinquish control back to me and I would be able to marry whoever I wanted. If you died suddenly however I would be unable to ever be with another man." Pansy admitted.

"You really want to do that?" Harry asked.

"If I do this, it means that under wizarding law, Draco or anyone else for that matter can never force me to marry them." She said, "No matter how unlikely it may be, I know it would give me some comfort. I trust you Harry."

"I'd have to think about that." Harry answered, not really sure what to make of her offer.

"Just give it some time and seriously think about it, I know I have." Pansy told him, patting him on the back.

She then unexpectedly changed the topic of conversation, noticing that he wasn't quite ready to talk further about her offer. "Are you nervous about your second duel tomorrow?" She asked.

"A little." He admitted.

"I'm sure you'll do fine, you did fantastic against that Czech wizard." She said supportively.

"It could have gone better, but at least I won." He said.

"I wonder how far each of you will go in the tournament." Pansy confided.

"Well Fleur got all the way to the top 16 last year," Harry answered, "so I expect she'll make it at least that far this year or close to it. The way Fleur raves about Gabrielle she'll probably go far too. Su will... well you know Su, I wouldn't be surprised if she goes far too."

"Aren't you forgetting someone?" Pansy reminded him cheekily.

"Well I'm just trying to focus on winning this next fight, and we'll see after that." He replied diplomatically.

"You are always too modest Harry." Pansy said, "I think you're a great duelist, I'll bet most of your competition hasn't trained as hard as you or as good at it."

"I'm not that great Pansy, you're probably just biased." Harry reminded her.

"Maybe so, but I still want you to win." She told him.

"I still have a long way to go before then," He tried to say, but Pansy interrupted him by kissing him on the lips.

"A kiss for luck." She said sweetly before getting up to go back inside the room.

DUELDUELDUEL

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to the two of them, Note Isme Nott sat in his hotel room not far from them.

One of his spies had reported seeing his target Harry Potter just outside his hotel room, largely unprotected other than his strumpet Parkinson.

It would have seemed the perfect opportunity in the dead of night while everyone was asleep were it not for one thing: he now wanted more than that.

While he did have a legitimate position on the international dueling committee, he also had a far more lucrative business in human trafficking. Whatever he could get his hands on and his various customers wanted he would get, muggles, witches or wizards, near-humans, it didn't matter to him. While Britain was a very difficult market for him, many other countries were far easier, and he had employees in many different countries, including the one he was currently in.

The reason for his hesitancy to take out Potter was his worry that it might spook and alarm his other targets. He'd recently received an order from an extremely wealthy Guatemalan wizard, someone he had been trying to do business with for quite some time. He owned a rather large plantation of valuable plants and was in constant need of laborers to work it. The magical government, as corrupt as it was, simply allowed it to occur as long as he continued to pay them a share of the profits.

However, his first order was set as a test, not simply the easily accessible laborer, but he wanted a far more valuable prize: two virgin Veela girls.

Veela were some of the most highly sought after and difficult to get for any trafficker for good reason. Several hundred years ago Veela were hunted down and captured by wizards for sexual purposes leading to the Veela being forced to band together into secret communes for protection. They proved to be very well hidden to begin with and any that might have discovered them were killed by them in order to maintain their secrecy.

Over the years, new laws were enacted in most countries protecting them but the Veela for the most part still remained rather isolated and inaccessible.

It was while searching for any potential prospects that the tournament took place and he spotted the two Veela girls evidently taking part in the tournament. The opportunity was too much for him to pass up, he'd have to chance killing the Potter boy and capture the two Veela at the same time. That would require more organization and planning, along with more men then he currently had. After all the boy and the two Veela were found to be accomplished duelists even though young and those protecting them would also prove to be a problem. Then there was the chance of alerting each other or those around them, and he didn't fancy having to fight his way through while carrying his two victims through a hotel full of duelists.

He'd have to either wait for a better opportunity or come up with a better plan.

DUELDUELDE

The next afternoon, Gabrielle was currently lying on her bed, resting after having just won her duel that morning, followed by a practice duel with Harry.

"So how did it go?" Fleur asked her.

"You saw how it went." Gabrielle replied.

"I wasn't talking about your duel, I was talking about your time with Harry." Fleur answered, having been going to get something to eat at the time.

Gabrielle blushed, "It went fine."

"I'm sure it went 'just fine.'" Fleur said coyly while smiling at her younger sister.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Gabrielle asked.

"I think you know what it means, you like him don't you?" Fleur suggested.

Gabrielle blushed, "All right maybe a little."

"Try a lot, I've never seen you act that way around a boy." Fleur said with a fond smile.

"So what if I do like him?" Gabrielle countered.

"There's nothing wrong with it sister, he is rather attractive and he is a very good duelist." Fleur said, pointing out just a couple of his positive attributes.

"He doesn't seem affected by your Allure either," Gabrielle commented, "he seemed to at first but it wore off really quickly and hasn't seemed to affect him since."

"I must admit he certainly is intriguing." Fleur allowed carefully.

"The only problem is he's betrothed, to 3 different girls!" Gabrielle exclaimed, "Go figure my first real crush is taken 3 times over..."

"That's only a problem if that bothers you. As for him I imagine being betrothed to more than one girl is something he's used to." The older blond commented.

"It doesn't bother me," Gabrielle admitted, "just that I would have a lot of competition that's all."

"Neither Susan, Su, or Pansy seem the jealous type, quite the opposite really, and it's not like they really have a choice in sharing anyway." Fleur pointed out.

"We live in two different countries and go to two different schools, I think it would be best if I didn't cause any potential strife if we are just going to go our separate ways after the tournament." Gabrielle said.

Fleur nodded as this was true, as depressing as it was, and went to go prepare for her next duel.

DUELDUELDE

Over the next few weeks, the tournament continued on, but inevitably there had to be a loss on 'their side'. Fleur got all the way to the top 32 in her 14 year old bracket before losing to a Bangladesh witch, but she wasn't too upset as her opponent was widely considered to be the favorite in the tournament and had won the year before.

Su was next to lose, placing in the top 16 before losing to a Mongolian witch. Su certainly wasn't happy and they all felt she should have won but her opponent got in a lucky hit.

It was to Harry and Gabrielle's great surprise, but not to anyone else that they made it all the way into the top 4 in the semi-finals, where they realized they would be facing each other.

As was customary in later duels, they each were given a tent to mentally prepare in, and Harry was being given some last minute advice by Flitwick.

"I know you're her friend Harry but remember when you see an opportunity you go for it. Holding back shows you don't feel your friend can handle your full strength." Flitwick suggested.

Harry nodded, he knew from his previous duels with Gabrielle that she certainly would not be an easy opponent, she won just as many duels with him as he won with her, and it was even money who would win in the end.

"Excuse me Mr. Potter?" A Panamanian wizard asked from the tent door, "I thought I would give you some of our famous ceviche, it is customary for the champions taking part in their later duels and those in their party to have a taste of our local heritage right before their duel."

Harry nodded, taking the proffered small bowl of food laid out for him while the others did the same.

"Hold on a second, never can be too careful," Amelia said, scanning her wand over the food. After a minute, she nodded, "Its fine, I don't detect any poisons or spells."

As Susan was the first to try it, her eyes widened. "This is good!" She admitted, going to try another bite.

As for himself he didn't feel like he could eat anything, as nervous as he was, instead he offered his to Susan, who seemed to truly love it.

When it came time for his duel he left the tent and went out onto the arena, now facing Gabrielle.

As he waited for the announcer to begin the duel, he took the time to study his opponent. The good news was he already knew her fighting style and weaknesses, but the downside was she also knew his. Which, all things considered, would have happened even if they hadn't been dueling privately, a fact they had both already accepted.

Gabrielle was also taking the time to study him, no doubt evaluating what she could do.

After the duel began, he immediately went into action, launching spell after spell at Gabrielle, who was doing the exact same thing.

With the duel being a real one neither of them were leaving any room for error, as the duel continued to wind down and he began to grow tired.

However, he noticed that Gabrielle was also growing exhausted, visibly winded, with both of them now trying to preserve their strength for when they would most need it.

It was at that moment that the unthinkable happened. He got hit by one of Gabrielle's spells, a low aimed concussor that failed to knock him out due to it being so low but immediately caused his legs to buckle and go dead, dropping him to his knees.

With his ability to walk now gone, he knew that one more hit would take him out.

Yet as he waited for it, instead Gabrielle herself seemed to grow faint and unexpectedly collapse and fall to the ground.

What had happened? He wondered, he hadn't hit her with any spells or even a delayed reaction one. She had seemed tired but not enough to simply collapse from exhaustion.

Nevertheless the crowd was clapping and cheering as if he had done something unexpected and unseen, no doubt also concluding either of those two possibilities.

Harry tried to go over to Gabrielle to see if she was alright, when one of the dueling tournament staff grabbed his arm.

"Come on, Mr. Potter, let's go get you checked out for injuries." The man said.

"I'm alright, let me go check on Gabrielle." Harry insisted.

"We'll take her as well Mr. Potter." The man said, gesturing for two other men to lift up the girl and take her.

Going along with them, Harry entered the medical tent behind Gabrielle. However he was only in there for a second before Fleur suddenly burst in.

"That's my sister." Fleur informed the men casually to explain her presence, but before she could take another step she also collapsed.

"What the?" Harry asked, going over to look at Fleur. Gabrielle was one thing but Fleur as well?

"Not to worry Mr. Potter, they'll be fine, you should be fine as well soon." The man who had accompanied him said.

"What do you mean?" Harry asked, now quite confused.

Before anything else could happen, another man burst in with a handlebar mustache and wearing black robes.

"The rest appear to all have fallen asleep, they won't be able to interfere, by the time anybody realizes what happened we should be long gone." The man said before looking over at Harry, "He should be asleep by now." He said, his eyes narrowing suspiciously.

By this time, Harry had figured out something was definitely amiss, and what the man had just said, and how the two men were still hovering over both Fleur and Gabrielle certainly was enough for him.

"Who are you?" He demanded, brandishing his wand at them, "What do you want with us?"

The men only laughed, still behaving like they were waiting for something from him.

He guessed that it was whatever drug had been given to them, probably that ceviche just before the duel even though he wasn't exactly sure how they had gotten it past Amelia's scrutiny. They probably didn't realize that he hadn't had it, however.

Deciding to ask questions later, he hit the first man with a spell, knocking him out before going for the 2nd man.

It was at this time that more men began to enter the large tent.

With as many as there were in such an enclosed small space, he knew he couldn't stay there, he'd be no good to the others, or to Fleur and Gabrielle if he was killed.

"Kill him." A man just now entering the tent commanded.

With no choice other than to flee, Harry tried to run for it by burning through the back of the tent, but before he could an explosion hit just to his side, jarring his head as he struggled to keep his eyes focused and keep from losing consciousness from the nearness of the explosion. Touching his cheek he saw blood, although he couldn't be sure how severe the injury would be.

The explosion however also finished making a hole in the back of the tent and he ran for it as fast as he could.

Now on the run, he ran through the crowd, wondering what the commotion was about near them. Fortunately he managed to squeeze through before his pursuers could follow, now hampered by the crowd.

As he thought about where he could go he realized he couldn't return to his hotel room, they might have more men there, he'd have to find somewhere else to hide.

He opted instead in running straight to the tournament headquarters building, hopefully he could find protection there and also warn them of the attack before his pursuers could get away.

However as his head pounded, and his vision began to grow blurry, he only made it just inside before collapsing, his last sight being someone now standing over him, a concerned looking Panamanian man.

Then his eyes fell closed and he knew no more.

DUELDUELDE

When he finally opened his eyes again, he awoke to find Pansy's face looking down at him.

"Pansy?" He asked blearily, a sense of deja vu coming to him.

"Are you all right?" She asked.

"I'm fine, glad to see you're all right." Harry answered.

"They apparently just drugged us, they apparently used some potion that Madame Bones didn't detect, some potion that's normally untraceable without greater scrutiny." Pansy explained, "Susan is actually still asleep. She had your share as well as her own, remember, so they expect her to take longer to reawaken."

"I think they were there to kill me." Harry informed her.

"We think so as well," Pansy said, "but we can't be sure exactly what they had in mind. The local Aurors are questioning the one man they managed to capture, the rest managed to escape."

Harry grunted, unhappy that they hadn't managed to get the rest, but hopefully whoever they had caught would be able to lead them to his accomplices.

"There's something else..." Pansy admitted nervously, "they got away with Fleur and Gabrielle."

"What?" Harry asked in complete disbelief and anger. He struggled to rise.

"You need to stay right where you are, you had a pretty bad blow to the head." Pansy cautioned.

"I need to get Fleur and Gabrielle back." Harry replied.

"Rest first, let the authorities handle it." Pansy said, "Madame Bones is there as well, once she woke up and learned what was going on she's been there as well, offering her expertise in interrogation."

Wishing that there was more he could do, but recognizing that he was still in no condition to, he was forced to wait a few hours and talk quietly with Pansy and Su, as well as Susan as soon as she awakened.

Finally Amelia came back, looking grim.

"Have you managed to glean anything?" Harry asked immediately.

"We have, the man we caught told us of the general plans, to kill you and kidnap the two girls, apparently as Veela they were considered valuable enough to capture." She said.

"What are they planning to do with them?" Pansy asked.

"Be sold as slaves no doubt, the man heard that they were planning on selling them to a man in Guatemala." Amelia told her.

Each of them were appalled, no doubt realizing what both girls would be forced to do as slaves.

"So that's good then, they can just follow them to Guatemala and get them back." Susan suggested.

"Unfortunately that's not that simple, by now they have no doubt gotten out of Panama, and outside of the Wizarding Government here, and unfortunately the Guatemalan Ministry is denying access to the country or involvement in the plot. I suspect they have been paid off in some way, but with them being so uncooperative it could take weeks before the International Confederation of Wizards takes action against them allowing someone to enter the country. We also don't know the exact location or the name of the buyer which could also complicate matters. There is even a chance we may never find them."

Looking shocked, Harry said, "Certainly we can't just sit around and do nothing."

"That's exactly why Mr. Delacour and I have already booked flights into Guatemala," Amelia answered.

"What about us?" Su asked, "We want to come too."

"Absolutely not, it would be far too dangerous," Amelia refused, "I've already spoken with Flitwick and he has agreed to accompany you back to Britain and make sure that you are safe. Harry, concerning the finals..."

"I'm not going to them," he said, as how could he really focus on the competition considering the circumstances, "not after what happened to Gabrielle and Fleur. Gabrielle should be the one in the finals, not me, she would have won had it not been for that sleeping potion."

Amelia nodded, making no argument against that decision, but Harry spoke up further, "You need to bring me with you, I saw the faces of most of the men who took them, I'd know who they are." He insisted.

"I can't put you into that kind of danger, especially after they just tried to kill you." Amelia said firmly, "What kind of person would I be if I did that?"

"One who wants to make sure the ones responsible for this is caught." Harry countered.

Amelia looked at him a moment longer before sighing and said, "Very well, but at the first sign of danger you have to promise you'll run for it."

He nodded before she said, "We'll need to hurry. If we have any chance of a rescue we'll need to catch up to them before they arrive at their final destination. If what I've heard about such places is true, it may be their only hope if we hope to get them out unharmed."

DUELDUELDUEL

It was Harry that suggested they take brooms and fly to Panama, rather than having to wait for their flight to leave, and also help to avoid anyone knowing of their coming should they check flights going from Panama to Guatemala.

Amelia and Mr. Delacour insisted on purchasing their own Nimbus Two Thousands, leaving him to purchase his own, wanting to travel as fast as they possibly could.

Fortunately all 3 of them proved to be excellent fliers and the insane speeds that they maintained proved to be of little difficulty.

When they finally arrived, they were understandably exhausted, having decided to risk flying all night, yet now had no idea exactly where to begin, only knowing that it was somewhere near the capital.

Finding the International Wizarding Office of Trade, Amelia claimed at first to be a witch looking to buy el chupacabras, a magical creature indigenous to Guatemala and Mexico, known for occasionally sucking the blood from goats by muggles.

"We have many chupacabras," The trade officer informed her, "for the right price and from the right supplier."

"Who would be a big supplier I could purchase them from?" She asked.

"Lopez, Hernandez, and Tomas are the biggest." He informed her.

She nodded and then reached into her hand pulling out some gold and placed one onto the desk, before lowering her voice considerably. "I'm also looking for some less... legal... creatures to buy. I have a nephew in need, you see." She announced, "I would be willing to reward you if you would be willing to point me in the right direction."

The man looked at the gold before answering quietly, now taking the bait, "I'm sure I'd be willing to help you...for the right price."

Amelia grinned before plopping another gold piece onto the desk. "I heard that someone had some Veela they were planning to sell." She said.

The man's eyes widened, "I'm afraid I don't know anything about that."

"Are you sure?" Amelia said, putting several more gold pieces onto the table.

The man looked around before saying, "You didn't hear it from me, but I heard that someone had captured two Veela. The only problem is I heard that they were already spoken for, Hidalgo was planning on buying them."

"Who is this Hidalgo?" Amelia asked him.

"The biggest slave and plantation owner in Guatemala, he owns everything they say, even the government, you had better not mess with him, he's a killer." He answered, moving to pull the gold off the table.

"Tell us where the Veela are being held and you'll receive all this." Amelia said, pulling out an entire small bag of gold.

The man looked at the gold, clearly tempted by the prospect of gold but also afraid of whoever Hidalgo was.

Finally his greed won over as Mr. Delacour also produced his own small bag of gold and put it on the desk.

"All right, they are keeping them in a house over on Vino Street." The man informed them in a hurried whisper, "But don't say I said anything to you, I get paid well to keep secrets like that."

"We won't say anything to anyone." Amelia promised.

After leaving the office, they flew over to Vino Street and quickly found the house, being guarded by at least two men, one of which Harry recognized. Using a scrying spell Amelia found that there were 6 more inside.

"There are too many of them for us to have a good chance of taking them all out." she concluded.

"We can't just leave them, these are my daughters we're talking about." Mr. Delacour said in a panic.

Harry felt great sympathy for Mr. Delacour, a father no doubt at wit's end trying to rescue his daughters that he so clearly loved.

"Don't worry, we'll just have to come up with something else," Amelia said, even though she clearly looked worried.

"What if we could somehow buy them back?" Harry suggested.

"I already used up all the money I had on me on that greedy trade officer. I don't carry much on me for security reasons." Mr. Delacour confided.

At a glance at Amelia, she nodded too, confirming they were without any gold in which to bargain with. He doubted that they would have had enough to buy both of them anyway, they would no doubt be expensive, especially if they were to beat the previous offer.

"Is there a Guatemalan equivalent to Gringotts?" Harry asked.

"There is, but my account isn't set up to handle international withdrawals or withdrawals outside Britain." Amelia answered, "It would take too long to set that up."

"What about my account?" Harry asked.

Amelia's eyes widened, "Actually I do remember when going over your account info that it did include that, but it would be a lot of money to be giving up no doubt."

As Harry looked over at Mr. Delacour, the man pleaded, "I know that you don't know me that well, but you are the only person who has even the chance of saving my daughters, I promise that I'll be pay you back every knut as soon as I have the means."

"I would do it without asking for anything in return." Harry told him, "Fleur and Gabrielle are my friends and if I have the means to save them, I will."

With tears of gratitude, Mr. Delacour embraced him, giving him a huge relieved hug.

As fast as they could, they traveled to the Guatemalan Wizarding Bank and withdrew a very large sum of money, also paying to have the gold put under a spell to be transported back to the bank in 3 hours if not for a counter spell known only to them should Fleur and Gabrielle's captors try to simply steal it and leave them high and dry.

"I want you to stay here until we get back." Amelia told him, "I can't risk your safety any further than I already have."

He nodded, as he had already promised to stay behind in a sign of danger, and watched them Apparate back to the house.

Approaching the door cautiously, the two of them went right up to the two men guarding the door, pulling out a gold coin from the bag full of gold to show what they had.

"I want to speak to whoever is in charge, I have a business proposition for him." Amelia told them.

One of the men went inside before returning with another man wearing gold chains around his greasy neck. "I am Ruis, what can I do for you?" He asked.

Ruis seemed to know exactly who they were, along with several of his men, but chose not to say anything. Undoubtedly he didn't care who they were as long as he could make a profit off them.

"I heard that you have two Veela. I wish to buy them." Amelia informed him.

"The Veela are already spoken for." Ruis replied mechanically.

"I'd be willing to pay you more than what that offer was." Amelia pressed.

"You don't understand, the Veela are spoken for; the man who is buying them will certainly not be happy if I renege on the deal, nor the man who I am holding them for." Ruis informed her.

"Just who is that?" Amelia asked, but Ruis shook his head, "It would cost you too much gold for that information."

"The Veela girls then at least," Mr. Delacour burst out, "We'll pay you double."

The man's eyebrows rose but then said, "The first offer is for ten thousand galleons each, that would cost you 40 thousand galleons total, and I wouldn't sell them to you even for that price."

Evidently Ruis recognized just what they were willing to pay to get the girls back. Family members were usually valued for far more than their apparent value as slaves.

"We'll triple it then." Amelia told him, hoping that that would finally get him.

He now looked like he was contemplating it, but it still wasn't enough.

"One hundred thousand galleons, take it or leave it," Amelia said, knowing that that was how much was in the bag having taken out way more than what she had expected to end up needing, but now glad that she had.

Ruis looked at her, then looked at the bag while Amelia silently hoped that it was enough before saying, "Very well, you have a deal. Show me the gold and let me prove you have that much."

"Not until you bring out the girls." Amelia demanded.

Ruis grunted and pointed at two of his men, who promptly went into one of the bedrooms before coming out with both Fleur and Gabrielle, currently with bags over their heads.

"Let me see their faces first." Amelia asked.

Both of Ruis' men pulled off the bags, revealing a drugged up Fleur and Gabrielle, who seemed just lucid enough to remain standing but not enough for them to recognize either herself or their father.

As Amelia handed over the bag to Ruis and she informed him about the safety measure she had on the gold.

"This man and I," She said, pointing at Mr. Delacour, "will take them both outside out of your anti-apparition wards, and he will Apparate out the younger one as a sign of good faith. Then I will remove the security charm on the gold and immediately Apparate out the other."

Ruis nodded, agreeing to the terms as they all headed outside.

When it came time, Mr. Delacour Apparated out with Gabrielle, and Amelia then cast the counter charm on the gold before immediately Apparating away with Fleur in front of the bank where Harry was waiting for them.

Scanning them over, however, as soon as she felt they were safe, she frowned and said, "I think we have a problem."

Author's Note: No, they were not raped in case anyone is wondering.


	15. Aftermath

Author's Note: Yay! I just hit 1000 author alerts! That's way higher than anything I ever imagined for this story, so thanks go out to all of my readers who give me reason to continue writing. It's greatly appreciated. For those of you wondering about why they simply gave the money to the slave traders, allowing them to probably extort someone else and grow their business, of course it wasn't as simple as that nor is Madame Bones that stupid. She was actually doing something law enforcement officials do constantly, or at least they do in the movies anyway. Just read this chapter and it should make sense why she simply did that.

Chapter 15

As Amelia scanned the two girls, she frowned and said, "I think we have a problem."

"What's the problem?" Mr. Delacour asked in fear, "they haven't been-they're still..."

"They haven't been violated, if that is what you are asking." Amelia told him soothingly.

Mr. Delacour breathed a sigh of relief, but unfortunately she wasn't done.

"They've been slave bonded." She told them gravely.

"What?!" Mr. Delacour yelled, despair written all over his face again.

"It appears to be quite well done too..." Amelia said slowly, "Evidently whoever did it has plenty of experience doing it. The only good thing about it as at least it is still open-ended to allow the eventual owner to take control of them, which will force them to always be owned without hope of release, but they won't automatically die as long as we find a permanent owner for them in the next day or two."

"Any owner could treat them as slaves and do whatever they want with them!" Mr. Delacour yelled.

"I thought bonds weren't that bad?" Harry questioned, "Pansy told me about them, she said that it just allowed whoever they bonded themselves to to be prevented from having relations with anyone else, and that they couldn't marry anyone else without the owner of the bond's approval."

"She was referring to the lowest form of the bond Harry." Amelia informed him patently, "The bond both Fleur and Gabrielle are under is far worse. It's done involuntarily using some of the worst kind of magic there is. Even the least reputable of wizards wouldn't dare use it, only the most vile filth would. Using such magic, anyone could be made into little more than a slave, not even allowed to perform basic functions such as relieve themselves should their master deny them that privilege, even to the point of death. If their master commanded them to torture and even kill themselves they would be forced to do it. It was outlawed in Britain and almost every country for good reason, even though its practice still continues illegally in the slave trade."

Harry was shocked, trying to imagine being forced to live such a life, nor what this now meant for Fleur and Gabrielle."

"It's all right," Amelia tried to console Mr. Delacour, "as long as they have a good master that gives them complete freedom there is no reason why they can't have a normal life."

"I cannot claim them myself." Mr. Delacour announced, "No father should ever truly own their children and force them in such ways. Nor can I simply give them over to anyone else I know as I'm not sure they could be trusted."

It was then that Mr. Delacour turned to Harry, as if seeming to consider something. "Since it was your money that bought them back in the first place, I feel I should offer it to you." The distraught man suggested.

Harry's eyebrows rose in surprise. "No way, how could I ever be a slave master to Fleur or Gabrielle?" He asked incredulously.

"They would only be slaves if you treated them as such." Amelia reminded him, "I can't help but keep in mind how you treat all three of your betrothed. Have you ever mistreated any of them?"

"No!" He exclaimed, scandalized by the mere thought.

"I'm honestly amazed at you Harry," Amelia said with a proud smile, "while I don't like the situation anymore than you do, I think you would be our best solution, especially if Mr. Delacour is also recommending it. The heavy duty potion drugs that they've been give will take another few days to wear off anyway without the antidote, after both Fleur and Gabrielle will need to be bonded to someone."

Harry sighed, why did stuff like this keep happening to him? A million things could go wrong with the plan, but he also saw no way he could refuse after being offered it like he had by Mr. Delacour.

"Very well then I must accept," he said, "but I'm also swearing an unbreakable vow right now and upon my magic that I will never mistreat either Fleur or Gabrielle or treat them as slaves. So mote it be."

Amelia gave him a smile of approval at having taken such an action and he was glad to see Mr. Delacour's fears subside just a little bit with that declaration.

"What am I going to do?" He asked them both.

DUELDUELDUEL

The last few times that Fleur woke up it was to find that she was bound and gagged and inside a building right next to her sister.

She was given some food and some water and forced to eat, along with Gabrielle. When she had tried talking to Gabrielle in an effort to comfort her, as she was looking just as scared as she was, she had immediately been slapped across the face, putting an end to her efforts.

The food seemed to be laced with some kind of potion that made her lose consciousness, until she was woken up to eat again, with the process repeating itself.

Exactly how long between meals transpired she was unsure, but she was also terrified that she might never escape. All avenues of escape or time to achieve it in seemed impossible. She however had a pretty good idea of just what had happened. Both her and Gabrielle had been kidnapped, she had heard about things like this happening to Veela from her grandmother, but she had never thought that it would happen to her. Now it appeared it was her fate to be some sex slave along with her sister.

She was grateful, in a twisted sort of way, that it was unlikely she would be separated from her sister. The two would be a paired item, sold in a package deal in a bid for more money.

Upon waking up, she fully expected to find herself still tied up inside the room that they had been held in, but when she opened them to find that it was not the case, instead she was inside another room. She only grew more alarmed as she thought it meant they had finally arrived at their destination on wherever the slave traders were planning on sending her.

Instead she found she was lying on a bed, and realized that she was no longer tied up and had full use of her hands and feet.

It was then that she heard someone's footsteps nearby. Pretending to still be asleep, she closed her eyes and waited for the person to come closer.

The person's footsteps suddenly ended right next to her, and she could feel some of their breath meaning they currently had their face directly over her.

Thinking that this may be her only chance at escape as some fool had left her untied, she tried to punch whoever it was right in the face.

The person reeled back in agony and as she opened up her eyes and tried to get up to give them another punch, only to realize that it was Susan.

"Gosh Fleur was that really necessary?" Susan asked, her nose now bleeding.

"Hold on, let me fix it for you." Madame Bones now said, pointing her wand at the girl, immediately stopping the blood flow.

"Thanks." Susan said, still batting at her nose to check to see if it was fully healed.

To Fleur's delight her father appeared and hurried over next to her with concern written across his face, "Are you okay honey?"

She nodded, and asked, "Where are we?"

"At my house in Britain." Madame Bones replied, "After taking you to the hospital for a bit to get you checked out we decided to take you back here."

"How did we get here? How did you manage to help us escape?" Fleur then asked.

"We managed to free you," Her father explained, "you're lucky we got to you both in time."

He related the story to her on how they were able to get to Guatemala where she had been taken and used Harry's money to buy them both back, before having them emergency transported to Britain. She didn't ask just why they had chosen Britain instead of her native France however.

"Where is Harry now?" Fleur asked, "I want to thank him, he likely saved our lives."

At this, her father seemed to instantly grow even more worried.

"He's busy dealing with a few things at the moment." Her father explained, although she sensed that there was a lot more to it than that.

"We'll need to discuss a few things with you and Gabrielle, but until then I'd suggest that you simply try to allow yourself to rest and perhaps try and heal." Madame Bones told her.

She nodded and lay back down as her father prattled on about random things; home, his wedding and how extravagant it was, how he met their mother, really anything he could think of. She could tell he was using the stories to help keep her mind off of her ordeal.

As for herself, she was still reeling from the fear that she had been harboring, that of never seeing her family again, being forced to do unspeakable things as a slave, it was all still fresh in her mind. It appeared that she was indeed very fortunate to have dodged such a bullet. If it hadn't been for Madame Bones, her father, and especially Harry, she likely would still be enslaved.

When Gabrielle finally woke up, she also had similar questions to which she received similar answers, but once again Fleur knew they were still hiding something, and something big.

It was only until hours later after they had both eaten a hearty meal to make up for the relatively small amounts they had been eating in captivity that she learned what.

"Its not really very easy to say this," Her father began slowly as he told both of them what he'd been keeping to himself, "but I couldn't see any other option."

"What is it?" Gabrielle asked him.

"While you were in captivity you were put under a slave bond, one that would force you to be owned by someone for the rest of your lives." He told them.

Fleur's breath caught, she had heard of slave bonds being used on Veela and they were widely considered to be some of the worst magic you could use on a person. Would she really be consigned to such a fate?

"Can't you remove it?" Gabrielle asked, not entirely sure just what her father meant.

"I'm afraid not..." Her father answered regretfully, "We were at least lucky enough to get to you before you were actually bonded to someone. Had we gotten to you at the time you reached your destination, any action to try and remove you from your slave owner would have led to your death."

"Who are we bonded to then?" Fleur asked, "We can't just be bonded to no one."

"We knew that if you weren't bonded to someone in the next few days that it would kill you and so we had to take drastic measures without being able to ask you for your approval of who it is." Her father then said.

"Who. Was. it." Fleur demanded.

"You both know I couldn't do it myself, nor could I trust anyone else to do it, or had a lot of time to choose someone. I made a perhaps rash decision but at the time it seemed like a good idea. You see, I chose Harry." He told them haltingly.

"What? You chose Harry!?" Gabrielle exclaimed in shock.

Fleur herself was in shock, trying to fathom this new information. She was now a slave to a boy she had only just met a few weeks ago.

"I know that the circumstances aren't ideal, but I figured that a boy willing to sacrifice 100 thousand galleons as well as risk his own life to save you would be a good owner for you. He also has three girls already betrothed to him, and treats them very well." Her father told them quickly, "Harry didn't want to do it but we, Madame Bones and I, were not willing to take no for an answer and as soon as it became apparent he only had one choice he made an unbreakable vow to always treat you well and not to treat you as mere slaves. He is almost as bound as you are now."

"He really did that...?" Fleur asked incredulously, almost anyone in his position would have at least been tempted to take advantage of being given such a position. He literally could have commanded them to do anything and they would be forced to do it.

"He did," Her father confirmed, "and I'm honestly very impressed that he would do that. He's also very worried about you two and how to care for you both."

As her father explained a few more things, mostly to Gabrielle, who still seemed confused about just what a slave bond was, she realized that perhaps it wouldn't be all bad. She could have had a much worse master. In truth, while teasing Gabrielle about her crush on Harry, she had been harboring a small one herself, he was rather cute, and certainly a nice boy, although since he was a few years younger than her she hadn't thought much past that other than conclude that, had he not already been betrothed to three other girls, he would be a great match for Gabrielle.

This also introduced a new concern: the fact that he would be balancing a relationship with those three girls along with two slaves. While her father was just now explaining that they would be given as many rights as Harry could give them, she knew that she and Gabrielle simply wouldn't be regarded at the same level as 'free' women at least by others if they ever found out. She could only speculate just what that would end up meaning.

"Harry has also agreed to marry you when the time comes." Her father admitted, prompting Gabrielle to suddenly have her mouth drop open in surprise. While Gabrielle may have had more than one fantasy about marrying Harry, she certainly would not have imagined it to be like this. Still, Fleur could almost see the gears running through Gabrielle's mind.

"I want to talk to Harry." Fleur announced.

"That can be arranged." Her father said easily, "He's no doubt worried to death over how you both will react to him and his position, but he should be expecting it. I would hope that you won't be too hard on him, it really isn't his fault."

"I'll try to be gentle." Fleur said.

"I would like to as well." Gabrielle stated.

"You'll get your chance but I would prefer to talk to him alone first." Fleur told her, to which Gabrielle nodded, seeming to understand.

After being told where he was by her father - currently in his bedroom - she headed over, trying to think exactly what to say to him. First she wanted to express her gratitude for him helping to save her, second to make him feel more at ease as she couldn't really be angry with him, not after how he'd acted; swearing an unbreakable vow and agreeing to marry them. The last thing she wanted to do was hurt him, as she could only guess what he was going through right now.

Yet as she knocked on the door and opened it without bothering to hear a reply, she found him currently standing over his bed , a frightened look on his face as he looked over at her, as if in fear of what she might do to him.

"Its all right, I'm not here to hurt you." She said gently.

"What about what I did to you?" he asked.

"What you did to me?" She asked, "You didn't do anything except save my life, I should be thanking you."

He still looked terrified, as if not entirely sure what to do with himself, and she was still reminded that this was only a 12 year old boy who still had no idea how to handle the huge problems that no child should ever have to face, yet he faced everyday as more continued to weigh him down.

She may have been concerned over her finding out she was a slave, but the way he looked at her right now, so innocent and so very worried about how she would react towards him caused her to suddenly forget all of that. He was just so... something that she couldn't explain, leaving her unable to say anything further. Finally she embraced him and did the one thing that she could think to do in that situation, the only way she could really express how she felt at that moment: she kissed him.

The kiss was not one of romantic passion, nor was it even one a couple might share, it was more her way of truly thanking him for what he had done, and also to remind him that things were okay. Yet also in a way it was her accepting him for who he was and what they could one day be.

He seemed surprised, but did not object as she continued to kiss him further, allowing both of them to enjoy the wonderful sensations they were feeling. Other thoughts and worries now melting away, they kissed for awhile longer before they finally broke apart.

"I'm not mad Harry." She was able to tell him before suddenly losing her ability to speak again. Whatever she was feeling she was still trying to process, and with her previous thoughts now rushing back it was leaving her temporarily unable to handle it all.

He also seemed to have lost the ability to speak which eventually forced her to say, "We'll talk later, I think Gabrielle wants to talk to you now."

Nodding, Harry agreed and she left to go sort things out before she tried again.

Meanwhile Gabrielle was waiting to see Harry herself. Unbeknownst to her, she was feeling much the same feelings as Fleur, only she was in greater control of them. After her sister left so quickly, she entered Harry's bedroom and sat down on the bed next to him.

"Hey..." she said quietly.

"Hey." Harry said back.

"So, should I call you master, or overlord?" Gabrielle said, trying to lighten things up with a joke.

"Just Harry will be fine." He said.

"Well then Just Harry, what is your first command?" She asked him teasingly. Somehow she knew that he wouldn't actually treat her as a slave, so she felt capable of making jokes, even if it was partially as a defense mechanism so as not to have to deal with the underlying problems.

"I'm not going to command you to do anything." He said firmly, "Just live your life the way you want to."

"Could you at least give me one so I know how it feels?" She asked him reasonably.

He looked at her moment before saying, "Raise your right hand."

Instantly something took over her as she found herself raising her right hand.

"Wow that's weird." She admitted.

"Did it hurt? Me forcing you like that?" He asked her worriedly.

"No, I think it would only hurts if I try to resist." She guessed as she lowered her hand back down.

As Gabrielle looked over at Harry, she was suddenly hit by an emotion that was still rather foreign to her, it seemed to go beyond the mere infatuation that she had possessed for him before. He'd helped save her life, so maybe that was it, but she felt like there was something more behind it.

Without realizing it, Harry gave her another command, "Tell me how you're feeling right now."

Blushing but unable to avoid it, she said, "I was thinking about how much I like you and want to kiss you right now."

Harry's eyes widened before finally saying, "It appears you aren't the only one. Fleur just kissed me as well. Maybe there was some kind of yearning to kiss their master involved in the slave spell that was used on you two."

"I think its more a Veela thing, I'm guessing..." Gabrielle answered thoughtfully, "My father mentioned something about that just before I came in, about how Veela can react like that when they are really grateful to someone and really like them."

Harry laughed, "I think that might be just a human thing too. I've been tempted to kiss either Pansy, Su, or Susan on occasion as well."

Then Harry thought about just what she had last said. "Wait a minute, you like me?" He asked, "Even after what I did to you?"

"You didn't do anything to me, I know that and I'm sure Fleur does too." Gabrielle responded, "If I'm going to be bonded to someone I could do a lot worse. I already liked you, even before you rescued us, but I think I like you even more now after I heard what you did."

"It all just happened so fast..." He admitted as he began to then relate to her his own thoughts and fears, how he would treat the two of them, how he had been so glad to have been able to rescue them, and how he had felt when her father had suggested that he take responsibility of them.

She listened quietly to him before giving her own thoughts and feelings before she finally said, "You know you could command me to kiss you right now if you want."

"Only if you want me to." He told her.

"I want you to." Gabrielle told him sincerely.

After a second he said, "Kiss me, Gabrielle." in that special tone that caused he to feel a tingling sensation in her belly.

She immediately leaned over and kissed him, and somehow it felt even better having him want her to kiss him along with herself as she did so. It tasted far better than she ever imagined her kissing him, and she was almost sad when the compulsion to do so wore off after only a few seconds.

"You know maybe there are benefits to being a slave..." She replied, grinning slyly, "Come on, let's go out and see everyone else."

He allowed her to take him by the hand and lead her out to find Madame Bones currently sitting at the kitchen table, along with several other people that she didn't recognize, seeming to listen to something.

As she saw them, however, she looked up and went over to them so as not to disturb whatever the others were doing and then said, "Hello children. These are representatives from the International Intelligence Office, they're here helping me with finding out whoever kidnapped you and where they're located."

"How are you doing that?" Gabrielle asked.

"I installed a listening charm onto the gold that I used to buy you back, I couldn't risk trying to break you out of there by force and I couldn't wait for any back up, so I did the next best thing. I figured that the listening charm would allow me to know what the kidnappers were saying and that it would lead us back to whoever they were working for. I want to get the main boss and gather enough evidence against him so I can bust down his entire organization and prevent something like this happening to anyone else again."

"That sounds great!" Gabrielle replied, "How did you manage to get a listening charm on it without them noticing?"

"Its simple, I put two on it, one was much more easy to find, which the kidnappers found and removed, and then failed to look further, assuming that they had already gotten it." Madame Bones told her.

"Is there anything we can do to help?" Harry offered.

"Not really, although I might need you, Gabrielle, or Fleur to identify the men after we capture them," Madame Bones said.

"I don't really remember a lot of what happened, we were under some sort of potion most of the time." Gabrielle said sadly.

"We'll just have to make do with what we've got then. It probably won't even be necessary, we've already gained a lot of information already." Madame Bones told her supportively, "We're still waiting for the main boss to show up and collect his share of the gold, but they've mentioned who he is under a code name; "The Scorpion". He should be arriving any minute now to talk with them."

"Madame Bones I think you'd better get in here." One of the IIO agents called for her.

"Please let us handle it, we'll get them all, don't worry." She told the kids before she quickly left them and headed back to the kitchen.

DUELDUELDUEL

A few days later, Note Isme Nott was enjoying the spoils of war in his mansion as he looked at some of the gold that he had taken as his share of the spoils taken from the Veela sale.

It hadn't gone as he had planned, but it certainly had been rather profitable. The fools had paid 5 times what he had originally been planning to sell them for. With the money he had gotten, he could easily afford to get even more Veela to sell for. The original buyer had already agreed to pay just as much for any additional Veela he managed to capture, along with a promise of additional business in the future.

Just as he was thinking this, he was suddenly alerted to the presence of someone assaulting his security wards.

Using a viewing spell to see what was going on, he noticed perhaps a couple dozen people all surrounding the property and hitting his wards, trying to get in. He recognized most of them to be Aurors, while the rest were wearing indistinguishable clothes, leaving him in the dark as to who they were. Several of them definitely looked foreign however.

_'How did they manage to find out it was me?' _He wondered.

His wards were rather formidable, but it wouldn't take long for so many people to break through. His only chance was to escape was via his secret tunnel he had dug underneath the mansion.

Quickly abandoning his family to deal with the law enforcement officials on their own, hopefully slowing them down in the process, he grabbed up the bag of gold and slipped inside the secret passageway behind the stone Griffin that marked the tunnel and tried to hurry as fast as he could.

When he finally reached the end it opened up into daylight and he allowed himself to breathe a huge sigh of relief, he had at least managed to escape, and he had several hideouts in various countries he could go to. He would assume a new identity and have his face changed, and he'd be able to use his many various accounts to once again regain his losses.

It was at this moment that he felt a wand pressed into his back.

"Don't move." The voice said.

He froze and dropped his wand while someone else came up in front of him. "Well done Auror Tonks, I do believe that is your first capture." Another person said coming up in front of him.

He gasped in shock as he realized that it was Madame Bones.

"Did you really think you could get away with it?" Madame Bones asked, pointing her own wand at him as she picked up his wand and the bag of gold that he had been carrying.

He spat into the dirt at her feet, but she seemed completely unperturbed.

"You've been a naughty boy Nott." She told him, "Attempted murder, kidnapping, theft, the list goes on and on."

"I didn't do anything." He claimed.

"I'm sure you didn't." she answered sarcastically, before pointing at the other Aurors now surrounding him, "Take him away."

They immediately complied and he was forcefully taken to who knows where.

DUELDUELDUEL

The time before summer break ended was certainly an interesting time for Harry and his girls. First he had to integrate two new girls, and also deal with the complexities of the bond he now had. He had to learn to catch himself before uttering commands, as even ones said not in the presence of Fleur and Gabrielle were still instantly carried out as long as they were addressed to the two. Fortunately it became slightly humorous to each of them, including both of them when he accidentally did it, as he always felt guilty even though he immediately stopped it.

It was also decided that Fleur and Gabrielle would be switching to Hogwarts in order to be closer to Harry as they couldn't be sure what might happen if they stayed away from him for so long. It was also quickly agreed that none of them would be telling anyone about the bond as it might cause problems. In the meantime however, Madame Bones let Mr. Delacour stay with them so that he could be able to enjoy some time with his daughters before they had to return to school.

A few days before school started, they went to go buy their school supplies.

At Flourish and Blotts, the bookstore, Harry was dismayed to find Ron Weasley and his family there, while the redhead mother stood in line to get an autograph signed by some author of some sort named Lockhart.

Harry also noticed Ron was just behind his mother, currently trying to pickpocket her purse without her noticing. His mother however quickly noticed what he was trying to do and immediately turned his hand into a large crab claw before giving him a stern talking to.

He shook his head, some things never changed, such as Ron getting a clue and maturing. He wondered just how he and his two twin brothers could have the same parents. While they enjoyed pranks, after talking to the two of them about the Slytherins being pranked unjustly, they had really stepped up.

As he went to go grab one of the books he needed from a shelf, someone bumped into him, sending their own stack of books they had flying.

"Oh, sorry." The girl said. He looked up to see she had long, waist length red hair. He also noted that she seemed vaguely familiar and he suddenly realized that it was Ron's little sister who had been begging to go to Hogwarts last year on the train platform.

When she saw him, she blushed as he stooped down to help gather up her books again. "Thanks." she said gratefully.

"No problem." He answered.

"I'm Ginny Weasley." She told him, sticking out her hand.

"I'm Harry Potter." He replied, shaking her hand quickly.

"Ron's told me a lot about you..." She told him.

"You really can't trust Ron in what he says about me." Harry insisted.

"I know." She admitted honestly, "I've learned to believe that whatever Ron says must be completely the opposite of the truth. When he said that you were just like all the stories I'd read on you, I figured they weren't true at all."

Harry grinned, it seemed here was another Weasley not at all like her brother Ron.

"Pretty much all of it is complete rubbish." He admitted.

"He tried to spin various stories about you and him, like sneaking dragons out of the school, fighting monsters in the forbidden forest, and playing games of chess where he always won." Ginny told him.

"Yeah, none of that actually happened. I try to avoid Ron as much as possible, to be honest." He told her.

"For your health I think that's wise." She cautioned.

"Well I think I'd better get back to my group." He said.

"Of course," She said with a smile, "hope to see you at school."

Suddenly a commotion broke out at the front of the store and both of them headed over to investigate.

They found a redheaded man that looked enough like Fred and George for him to guess that it was their father. He was currently hunched over, having fallen into a bookshelf.

Ron was standing near him, but of course he made no move to help his father, instead he was busy staring at Fleur's rear end, who currently had her back turned towards him some distance away.

"Physical violence, how very Muggle of you." A blonde haired man said with a sneer.

Harry noticed Draco hiding just behind him, and he quickly also surmised that this Draco's father, someone he certainly wouldn't consider a pleasure meeting.

Ginny went to go help her father up while Draco's father said, "Come now Draco, no need for us to spend any more time with rubbish."

They both strode out of the store, leaving a slightly disheveled looking Mr. Weasley, who had just now gotten up.

"Are you all right, daddy?" Ginny asked.

"Yes, I'm fine. He just got the jump on me before I could land a hit on him." Mr. Weasley told her, "Wish I'd managed to wipe that stupid sneer off his face though."

Harry picked up Mr. Weasley's bag and handed it to him.

"Thank you." The man said absently, still looking a bit dazed.

Ginny noticed him and announced, "This is Harry Potter, daddy."

Her father's eyes immediately flicked to his scar and said with surprised delight, "Are you really?"

Harry expected him to go with the usual boy-who-lived questions, but instead he was excited to meet him for another reason. "I heard that you grew up with muggles? How was that? I simply must know what the function of a rubber duck is?" He asked him.

As he opened his mouth to reply to this rather odd last question, Ginny interrupted him and yelled at Ron, who was still focused on Fleur.

"Would you please stop staring at that girl's behind? Your father just got hurt and that's all you can manage to think to do!?" Ginny yelled.

Ron finally turned around after she grabbed his arm. "What?" He asked stupidly, seemingly unaware of his father's plight.

Ginny sighed with obvious annoyance, which Harry could hardly blame her for.

The store owner then finally came over to assess if there were any damages, and Harry used that opportunity to go over to Fleur, now currently reading a book.

"What was the commotion about?" She asked him idly, looking up from her book for the first time as he settled in beside her.

"Just a minor disagreement." He told her, "Ron keeps staring at you by the way."

"If you mean that redheaded boy he's been doing that the entire time I've been in here..." She replied with annoyance, "Its either my chest or my butt, whichever way I turn."

He knew how much she hated being stared at so much, and as he looked back out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that Ron had gone back to staring at her, while Ginny looked ready to smack him.

"I think he just needs to be shown I'm already taken." She said, just before she unexpectedly gave him a searing kiss that left him breathless. This was the second time that she had kissed him, and it was just as amazing as the first; more so, even, because it contained more affection than her previous kiss of gratitude.

They both then looked over and grinned at Ron, who looked absolutely stunned.

While Harry would never try and show Fleur off like that, proving in such a way that she was his, if she decided to do it however he didn't have a problem with that. He rather liked her kisses and seeing Ron act completely jealous and stunned was only an added bonus.

"That was so worth it." She said as she linked hands with him and walked past Ron, who now had his mouth so wide open that an entire Quaffle might have fit into it.

Who said life could always be bad?

Author's Note: I'm really not a fan of the Harry forcing girls to be sex slaves thing. It just isn't believable to me that Harry would suddenly so willingly force girls for his own pleasure, even to the point of hurting or raping them. What I do find interesting, however, is exactly how I think Harry would act if given the power and opportunity as my version of if Harry got some slaves forced to do what he asks them to do. It will also help show the huge problems in wizarding society as far as equality and equal rights are concerned, not only with women but with other things, pureblood supremacy for one. Having Fleur and Gabrielle be slaves will have far greater impact than any of them realize as you'll see as the story progresses.


	16. Pest Problems

Chapter Sixteen

Pest Problems

The night before they were scheduled to return to Hogwarts, Pansy got up late at night to find Fleur also up.

"Couldn't sleep either huh?" Pansy concluded.

"Just couldn't stop thinking about the new year," Fleur confessed, "its just all so crazy, I never really imagined my life turning out like this."

"The slave thing or the going to Hogwarts thing?" The younger girl asked.

"Both." Fleur replied after several moments of thought, "I'm worried about what Hogwarts will be like but I'm also wondering about how everyone will treat me. First of all I'm a Veela, so I'm still going to get all of that unwanted attention just because of what I am, not only from guys but from girls that are jealous."

"Well I'm not going to deny that I'm one of them," Pansy admitted, "I'd kill to have a body like yours."

"Trust me it really isn't as great as you'd think..." Fleur replied with a sigh, "Some attention is nice but when every guy that you talk with can't stop staring long enough to even have a decent conversation with you it becomes a problem. Veela always have trouble in that regard."

"I'm sorry if I offended you, I just don't really understand what that's like." Pansy answered.

"You've still got plenty of years to grow up," Fleur said, "and I'm not offended by that comment, we all want what we don't have after all. If I weren't a Veela it might not be so bad to be beautiful, but people tend to assume that I only exist for sex."

Pansy could see her point, that certainly did not sound fun.

"Then the only slave thing is likely to exacerbate the whole issue." Fleur continued, "I know that Harry is a great guy and all and he's been nothing but nice to me, but I can't imagine everyone acting that way towards me if they ever find out."

"We'll just have to make sure it stays a secret." Pansy told her optimistically.

"That's what I'm hoping for but I'm still trying to steel myself in case it ever gets out." Fleur took the route of realism.

"If it ever got out Harry would support you and get you through it, and so would I, Su, and Susan." Pansy replied.

"You don't even know me though." Fleur pointed out, surprised and unsure at the sudden show of complete support.

"We know you well enough, besides its not like each of us hasn't faced similar problems, each of us might easily have been in very undesirable marriages." Pansy answered, "Draco and Nott for example were already forcing me and Su to do stuff, I can't imagine how bad it would have gotten as we had gotten older."

Pansy shuddered at the thought.

"You still wouldn't have been slaves though." Fleur tried to remind her.

"No, if I had ended up with Draco I might as well have been." Pansy said wryly, "In a lot of ways slavery to someone else other than him would have been preferable to the alternative. Did I tell you I even offered to bond myself to Harry?"

"You actually wanted to?" Fleur exclaimed, aghast.

"It was the only thing I could think of so I wouldn't have to worry about him losing me to Malfoy again, it might still be an unlikely possibility but I just didn't want to take that chance, I still don't," Pansy confessed, "in a lot of ways I actually envy you. You don't have to ever worry again about who you'll belong to, and with your looks I can't imagine Harry not loving you."

Fleur scoffed, "Being able to truly love someone goes further than simply looks. Though I get the attention of virtually every guy I meet their attraction to me is just skin-deep, they don't really want to get to know me, just my body. I could be an absolutely horrible person and it wouldn't make much of a difference. I think that's why I actually find myself liking Harry so much, he's the first boy I've met who's made a real effort to get to know the real me."

"He has a way of doing that." Pansy confirmed with a fond smile, "How I was forced to act around Draco is something I'm not really proud of, but he managed to get me past that and start to act like my true self."

"Though he may be just a boy, in a lot of ways he seems a lot more mature than that, its like he tries to take on responsibility way above his years." Fleur commented.

"We're all pretty young. Even still I feel I'm already falling in love with him." Pansy confessed, looking at Fleur, nervous about how her declaration of love would be received by the older girl.

Fortunately Fleur seemed to be gracious enough to not simply discount it as a still pre-teen girl's crush, but instead moved to reassure her.

"I'm happy for you then." Fleur finally answered, "One day I hope to really fall in love with him too."

DUELDUELDUEL

As Harry waited for his turn to go through the barriers between 9 and 10, Amelia and Mr. Delacour were already starting to say their goodbyes, while they stood just behind the Weasleys who were just now going through the barrier one by one.

"Make sure to have someone around watching you when you practice flying." Amelia cautioned Susan, who was now allowed to bring her own broom, the Nimbus 2000 that she had gotten her for Christmas. Fleur on the other hand was given the broom that her father had purchased over in Panama for her birthday. The diamond necklace that Harry had given her from his family vault had earned yet another kiss from her.

Harry noticed that there was only Ron and Ginny left and as Ron ran into the barrier, instead of him simply going directly through, he crashed right into it, the barrier for some reason becoming totally solid.

With him having fallen over and his cart banged up, Ginny went over to help him up, but Ron rejected it.

"I don't need your help!" He shouted at her.

"I was only trying to help." Ginny claimed, but Ron wasn't having any of it.

"The stupid barrier is broken!" Ron said, kicking it for good measure, "Some shoddy piece of magic from a lousy Slytherin no doubt."

"We'll just have to find someone to get it fixed." Ginny suggested calmly.

"No way," Ron claimed, "I have a better idea, way better than the stupid train, I'll be traveling to Hogwarts in _style_."

Ron righted his cart and ran off somewhere without explaining just what he meant.

Meanwhile Amelia had noticed what happened and went to go inspect the barrier before saying, "It appears the magic on it allowing people to go through seems to have turned off, don't worry I'll have it fixed in a second." She told them.

After checking to make sure it was really fixed, she allowed Ginny to go through, followed by Susan, and then the rest of them.

They quickly made their last minute goodbyes right there.

"Now you be good Harry, and don't you dare be doing anything that 12 year old boys shouldn't be doing or I'll make sure Dumbledore has you doing owlery cleaning duty every day." Madame Bones warned him.

"I will." He promised, giving her a hug and causing her to actually tear up.

"I'm going to miss all of you." She told them, before finally allowing him to leave so she could finish saying goodbye to Susan.

As soon as they entered the train, they quickly found a compartment and they all sat down. Fortunately none of them was particularly big so there was still plenty of room for all of them.

While Pansy explained a bit more about the house selection process to Fleur and Gabrielle, he allowed Susan to lay her head down on his shoulder so she could take a nap.

"Thank you Harry." She muttered as she snuggled into his shoulder.

"No problem." He said.

"Is it all right if I do the same?" Su asked on the other side of him.

"If you want to." Harry told her as she lay down her head on his other shoulder.

He decided to risk grabbing up some of Su's hair, which was currently put in front of her on his side and gently run his hands through it, he knew how much Su loved having her hair played with.

"You getting enough attention there Harry?" Fleur asked, noticing the rather close proximity to him and the two girls.

"Sometimes there are benefits to being in a crowded train compartment full of pretty girls." Harry told her.

"Just don't get too comfortable, you're lucky I haven't hexed you." Su told him.

"You know I'd just have to hex you back," Harry countered, knowing that it was an idle threat on Su's part. While she could no doubt kill him if she so chose, he had for the most part managed to escape her ire. Evidently he was doing at least something right.

"How long until we get there?" Gabrielle asked.

"Several more hours maybe." Pansy replied.

"Well if we don't switch seats before then, I get dibs on sitting next to Harry on the way back for Christmas vacation." Gabrielle claimed.

While he wasn't exactly sure what he had done to become so popular, he wasn't complaining as he allowed both Su and Susan rest on either side of him.

DUELDUELDUEL

Upon arriving at Hogwarts, Fleur and Gabrielle were asked to go along with the first years so that they could be sorted, leaving Harry, Pansy, Su, and Susan to sit at each of their 4 tables.

The first years were all sorted first, including Ginny, who came up last to be sorted into Gryffindor.

"Delacour, Fleur!" Ms. McGonagall called as Fleur came up.

The hat was on her head for perhaps a minute before it called, "Gryffindor!"

Fleur happily went over to sit next to him as he made a space for her.

Gabrielle was next and also took another minute before she was also sorted into Gryffindor.

Obviously happy to be sorted into the same house as her sister and him, she went to go sit on the other side of him, her hand finding his as she sat down.

Dumbledore was just now getting up to deliver his beginning of term speech when the wall directly behind the headmaster and the teacher's table made a very loud crash, causing everyone to look over at what was the matter.

To their amazement, they noticed a car suspended for just a second, just outside the window, which apparently had strong enough magical protection to have handled the blow without breaking. The car then crashed to the ground below making a loud metallic crunch as it did so.

As Dumbledore went over to look out the window and see just what had happened for himself he then turned back to the still curious students and faculty and announced, "Please do not panic, the teachers will go see just what is the matter. In the meantime let me tell you of the various announcements. First, our caretaker has recently updated the list of banned activities and items at Hogwarts."

Of course at this point nobody was really listening, all still staring out the window, wondering just what had happened and how a car had managed to crash that high up, much less get into the school grounds in the first place.

"Does stuff like this always happen at Hogwarts?" Fleur asked.

"Every once in awhile." He said truthfully.

DUELDUELDUEL

It wasn't until the next morning as they came down to breakfast that they found out just what had happened as Ron Weasley got a Howler from his mother, yelling about stealing a car and other stuff he wasn't able to determine was said as Ron had ran far enough away from the Great Hall for it to no longer be discernible.

Fortunately Ginny who was sitting nearby explained the details.

"My brother decided it would be a good idea to drive my father's flying car to Hogwarts." Ginny explained, "I'm surprised he managed to make it this far, but I'm not surprised he crashed into something while trying to land."

"Its a miracle he wasn't killed." Fleur claimed.

Harry couldn't help but notice all of the stares that were coming the French girl's way, which she ignored and instead gave him another kiss, which caused them to stare in shock at both of them before immediately going back to concentrate on eating. It appeared none of the Gryffindors wanted to try anything since she so explicitly showed that she was taken, the troll incident and couple of duels he had taken part in already had apparently given him a reputation of someone not to be messed with. Even though Fleur was using him in a way to get people to stop staring so much, he really didn't mind as long as it meant the occasional kiss from her.

Ginny, having already seen this display in Flourish and Blotts, chose to ignore this. He could tell she was somewhat jealous, but at least she was nice enough not to take it out on Fleur.

"You need help finding your classes Ginny?" Harry offered, "I was going to show Fleur and Gabrielle whee everything is so you can join us if you'd like."

"Sure, that would be nice." Ginny answered gratefully.

Eating quickly, they managed to get done and Harry hurriedly showed them around the castle before classes began.

Leaving Fleur and Ginny at their first classes, he headed back to the Defense Against the Dark Arts room with Gabrielle and sat down, waiting for their new teacher Professor Lockhart to enter.

When he finally did, Harry noticed that he still wore that ridiculously huge smile that all of his posters had displayed him having at the bookshop.

"Good morning class!" He said grandiosely, "I am Professor Lockhart, your new teacher, Order of Merlin Third Class. I'm sure that you are all aware from my books that I am the greatest fighter of magical creatures on the planet by now and my reputation precedes me. I know it may be difficult to be in the presence of such a well known celebrity but I wish to assure you that I will try to be respectful of you ordinary people as well."

Harry noticed that most of the girls were there looking at him with lovestruck faces, including Parvati and Lavender who both sighed as he handed each of them a pink carnation.

_'This guy was seriously milking his looks for all they're worth...' _He thought. _'At least...' _Harry looked over at Gabrielle tp gauge her reaction, only to immediately smile as she didn't seem at all fooled by him, even wearing a look of disgust on her face.

She looked over at him as if to silently ask, "Is this guy for real?"

He sent her a similar look back as they turned back to look at Lockhart and wonder just what kind of idiotic thing he would say or do next.

After going on about various things that he did in his books, he set them to the task of answering a long list of questions about things in his books.

Since he himself had not read more than a few pages of the first one as he found it to be a load of nonsense, he barely knew any of the answers so he made up his own.

Gabrielle however took it a step further and as she showed him what she had written He realized it certainly wouldn't gain her any favors with the new professor but were hilarious nonetheless.

What is Gilderoy Lockhart's favorite color? Isn't it obvious, the color that the camera makes as it flashes in front of his face.

What is Gilderoy Lockhart's greatest achievement? Managing to dress himself in the morning.

Harry couldn't help but laugh, even though he was worried that she might get into trouble for her answers

Still, Lockhart chose to ignore hers as he looked each of them over after handing them in, concentrating more on Hermione's, who of course got all the questions right.

After that, he went over to a covered object that they all had noticed when coming in and had been making a few banging sounds occasionally.

"Now what you are about to see next may alarm you, but I must ask you not to scream, you might provoke them." Lockhart cautioned dramatically, lifting the cover off of it, revealing a cage full of small blue creatures.

This earned a laugh from Seamus, "Cornish Pixies?!" He choked out between guffaws.

"They are much more dangerous than you realize." Lockhart claimed, onlt for Seamus to laugh harder, other boys joining him. "Well let's see what you make of them."

He opened up the cage and pixies began to fly out and immediately wreak havoc, obviously not being too pleased with being cooped up into such a small cage.

Lockhart tried to cast a spell at one of them but two others lifted him up a few feet before he crashed back down.

As Hermione tried to swat one away with her book, Gabrielle managed to take the two down that were trying to hoist Neville up onto the chandelier and keep him from hitting the ground too hard.

Lockhart, the coward that he was, ran for it and went to go hide in his office, leaving the class to handle the situation.

It didn't take long for either him or Gabrielle to do so, with a bit of help from Hermione, Lavender, and Parvati while Ron and his gang all hid in a corner of the room.

After subduing them all and putting them back into their cage, Ron spoke up, as if he had actually accomplished something, "Well good work team, we sure showed them."

"Like you actually did anything." Hermione claimed angrily.

"I was there for moral support!" Ron insisted, causing Gabrielle to roll her eyes at him.

At that moment Peeves, no doubt having heard the commotion, showed up.

"Hello Peeves." Harry said, still grateful to Peeves for last year, but also hoping that he didn't cause anymore problems for them, having just gotten all of the pixies back into their cage."

"What gives?" Peeves demanded, acting unhappy, "It looks like I missed all the fun?"

"Actually Peeves," Harry answered, getting an idea as he went to go whisper into his ear, causing Peeves to look all conspiratorial, "why don't you go ghost those pixies into Lockhart's office and release them? He could do with a little excitement."

Peeves grinned, liking the idea as he picked up the cage and went through Lockhart's locked door with it. Exactly 5 seconds later there came a scream as Lockhart evidently discover the pixies now loose in his office.

He tried to open up the door, but Harry noticed that Peeves had already come back to the other side and was holding onto the doorknob to keep him from opening it.

"Open this door at once poltergeist!" Lockhart demanded shrilly, by now desperately trying to escape.

Peeves, who kept his head partially through the door, kept up a running commentary for each of the students, clearly enjoying being able to describe the display.

"Now the pixies are smashing all of his framed photographs of himself," Peeves commented with glee, "he really has too many, I'll have to get some once the pixies are done with them, make him look more distinguished."

"Now the pixies just ripped his pants off, did any of you know he has pink underwear? Oh, _Lilac_, my mistake."

"Now... well I won't tell you what just happened but let's just say there's no fixing that underwear."

The brilliant commentary done by Peeves caused howls of laughter from the students, minus Hermione, who seemed rather put off that her crush was being humiliated in such a way.

"You know, maybe Hogwarts won't be so bad?" Gabrielle concluded beside him.

DUELDUELDE

At lunch, they all sat at the Gryffindor table to discuss classes as well as relate what had happened in DADA, causing each of them to have a good laugh when Ginny came in looking a bit unsure just where to sit, he beckoned her over so that at least she would feel more welcomed, but by chance the next available spot was over by Pansy who quickly made room for her.

Still, he tried to make sure she felt included by asking her how classes were going so far for her.

While she began describing how they went, Ron came in with Seamus, Dean, and Neville.

When he saw Ginny sitting by Pansy, he told her loudly, "You aren't allowed to sit there Ginny!"

"Why not?" She snapped, having been enjoying her conversation.

"No relative of mine is allowed to associate with any slimy Slytherins." Ron claimed.

"I think I'm allowed to decide for myself who I want to sit next to." Ginny countered angrily.

"I can't believe you Ginny, you're completely shaming the entire Weasley family!" Ron intimated.

"As far as I know the only person that has managed to shame the Weasley family is you." Ginny countered, obviously meaning his reckless driving of the flying car.

Ron flushed with embarrassment but still he tried to grab her and pull her out of her seat.

"Let go of me Ron." She objected loudly.

"I think you had better lay off her." Su said, drawing her wand and pointing it at him.

"Shut up, this doesn't concern you Chinese pasty-face, this is a family matter, one you have no right to interfere in." Ron sneered.

Harry could tell that Su was angered by the comment and he could tell that things would escalate fast. While he had no doubt that Su could take Ron out and reduce him to a pile of ash in roughly a quarter of a second he'd rather not see her get into any trouble.

Fortunately Pansy came in right at that moment.

"I challenge you to that duel you still owe me, Weasley." Pansy challenged.

"I don't have to agree to any duels from you, _snake_." Ron countered.

"Actually you do, brother of mine." George said with a grin from down the table, having listened to the whole conversation with Fred, who piped in and added, "Besides you wouldn't want anyone calling you a cowardly spider would you?"

As Harry looked over at the two of them, he realized they would be more than happy to spread such a rumor.

Ron looked decidedly unhappy at having his brothers get involved as well.

"If I win you have to let Ginny sit wherever she wants." Pansy suggested.

After looking around to see if he could get any backup, only to find that Seamus, Dean, and Neville were staying out of this and remaining totally silent, he realized his only option was to accept, demonstrating that he at least had Gryffindor courage even if it was usually foolhardy.

"If I win you have to agree never to sit at the Gryffindor table again." Ron told her.

"Agreed," Pansy said, "we'll have the duel right after dinner then, right here in the Great Hall, as long as Dumbledore doesn't have a problem with it."

Ron nodded before going and taking a seat at the very other end of the Gryffindor table.

Turning back to their meal, Ginny told Pansy, "You know you really didn't have to do that for me."

"No, its no big deal." Pansy claimed, "Your brother has had it coming to him for a long time, I've been looking forward to beating him up for awhile now. You just provided the perfect opportunity."

"You seem much more confident now than your last would-be duel." Susan remarked.

"Well I've done a lot more practicing since then." Pansy admitted proudly, "I very much doubt Ron has done the same."

"All Ron usually does is eat, belch, prattle on about his stupid Cannons Quidditch team, and crash into things when he tries to go flying." Ginny claimed, "The twins have gotten so fed up with him that they've started pranking him daily."

Harry shook his head, would the boy never learn?

DUELDUELDUEL

During dinnertime and right before the duel, they found an abandoned classroom to practice in, while the 4 experienced duelists gave her pointers. While Pansy would have been quite easy to defeat by any of their standards, they had no doubt that it would be more than enough to beat someone like Ron. Personally Harry would guess that a monkey could beat Ron, although they might have to handicap the monkey in some way in order to give Ron at least a fighting chance.

"I think you're going to crush him." Susan claimed, earning a smile from Pansy. While she looked slightly nervous, she had good reason to feel confident.

"I think its just a question of how badly you beat him." Su said, offering her own opinion.

As they made their way back to the Great Hall they entered to find that the tables had already been cleared, Dumbledore, who seemed to enjoy conducting duels by now, started the process.

Harry listened, but was still intent on watching Pansy get ready as she faced off against Ron, who looked at her with derision, trying to pretend that she wasn't even worth his time.

As soon as the duel began, it became immediately clear who was the better duelist, and when he meant immediately he meant immediately. Literally the first spell that Pansy fired at Ron with met its mark, and Ron's rather pathetic attempt to dodge it caused him to trip on his robes and fall on the end of his wand, causing a howl of pain as it went right through his robes and poked directly up his rear end. The term that Su had often claimed Ron of having, of having a stick up his butt, was now painfully true.

Allowing Ron to try and get back up again in order to prolong the fight, Pansy waited for him to pull it out, as Ron was dismayed to find that his wand was somewhat bent and damaged.

"My wand!" He yelled, "You're going to pay for that Slytherin, eat slugs."

Unfortunately for Ron due to his obvious discomfort he failed to notice which end of his wand he was actually pointing at her as instead it hit him right in the face, causing him to suddenly belch out one huge fat slug after another.

Barely able to keep from laughing, which might actually have been a possible strategy of Ron's if he intended for Pansy to simply laugh herself to death, she cast another spell at him, causing him to immediately turn red as a steady drip of yellowish-brown liquid ran down his pants and onto the floor, the result of the laxative spell that Pansy had been planning to use on him.

Completely shamed, Harry almost felt sorry for Ron, it certainly hadn't been a good day for him, and seeing as how he was now more focused on regurgitating slugs then he was dueling, it was almost merciful for Pansy to knock him out with her next spell.

While everyone stood away from Ron as the duel ended, not too keen to be anywhere near the slugs and his excrement, they instead chose to congratulate Pansy in so soundly defeating Ron.

"Well... that was easy." Pansy couldn't help grinning.

DUELDUELDUEL

Later on as Harry headed up to bed, still grinning over his memory of the duel, he headed up to his dormitory expecting to find it empty as he doubted Ron or the other boys in his dorm would want to show their faces around him for the next few hours at least.

Instead he was surprised to find a house elf currently standing on his bed, looking quite like the one that Susan owned but this one was evidently male.

"Mr. Harry Potter?" The house elf asked.

"That's me." Harry confirmed, "Who are you?"

"I is Dobby sir, Dobby the house elf." Dobby replied.

"How may I help you Dobby?" Harry asked kindly.

"Dobby wonders where to begin..." Dobby began.

"Try starting at the beginning." Harry suggested.

"Dobby is not allowed to say," Dobby admitted, "but Harry Potter must leave Hogwarts at once."

"If I don't know the reason for it I can't see why I would be able to justify leaving all of a sudden." Harry insisted.

"It is not safe," Dobby told him, "Dobby has heard of Harry Potter's greatness and he must not let Harry Potter be put in danger!"

"I'm in danger on a constant basis," Harry argued, "it seems to follow me wherever I go."

"Harry Potter doesn't understand." Dobby countered, trying to tell him something but seeming to be incapable of saying it. He realized that whatever Dobby was doing it was probably against his master's wishes, whoever they were. From what he knew about house elves this was probably already causing him great pain.

"I simply can't leave now, if something dangerous will be happening at Hogwarts I've got to be here to protect my friends." Harry told Dobby as he pulled out a picture that he and the girls had taken over the summer with each of them smiling.

Dobby glanced at the photo and then asked incredulously, "Harry Potter is brave enough to risk himself for his girlses?"

He supposed Dobby must have some innate magical way of knowing the exact relationship he had with the girls because of what Dobby said next.

"Harry Potter must be a truly great wizard to be wiling to do so for slaves and his betrothed!" Dobby answered, "Dobby doesn't like Harry Potter being in danger but he cannot let Harry Potter watch his girlses be hurt. I will have to let you stay."

Without another word, Dobby cracked out of the room, leaving him alone and wondering just what that was all about. While Dobby had tried to warn him of an impending danger he had no idea just what it was or how bad it would be meaning he couldn't actually warn anyone of it or prepare for it. He supposed he would find out soon enough whatever it was.


	17. Talking to Stars and Snakes

Author's Note: I've been getting a lot of reviews and private messages asking me if I will be putting either Luna, Hermione, or Ginny into the harem so I'd like to set the record straight. I will not be putting any of them in the harem. While I do like all of these characters I've opted not to include them as they are simply overdone. I pride myself on making sure that this story is original and has good and believable ideas in it, and there just isn't anything new that I could come up with and use for them. They will be friends with Harry but won't have the same amount of closeness and use in the story that each of the girls already in the harem enjoy. There are several other reasons for not including them as it is already proving to be somewhat difficult balancing each of the girls in the harem and making sure they are included in the story and get enough character development going for each of them. I'll probably have one more girl in the harem but that will be it. Anymore and I'll start having some serious problems writing. Also I have gotten just as many people asking that I not put one or the other of said girls so I figured that include them or not, I was bound to anger somebody. While some of you may not agree I thought I would at least explain my reasoning. Thanks.

Chapter 17

Talking to Stars and Snakes

Over the next few months, Harry saw no more signs of Dobby, but Ron was now trying to stay clear of them as much as possible or indeed most people for that matter, having been made a laughingstock of the entire school.

He had now taken to swearing at whoever so much as looked at him, making it extremely difficult for Harry to feel sorry for him.

Quidditch tryouts however began, and Susan decided to try out for her house team.

"Good luck," Harry told her as he and the rest of the girls sat down in the stands to watch her try out.

As they all watched as the Hufflepuff House Captain Cedric Diggory began to issue instructions to each of the tryouts they talked quietly amongst themselves.

"Do you think she has a chance of making it?" asked Fleur.

"I'll bet she does," Gabrielle answered, "she's a really good flier."

Su looked over at Gabrielle and asked, "why didn't you try out for your house team? You're a pretty good flier and I've heard Gryffindor is still in need of a decent seeker. Their last one stunk."

"I thought about it but it would take too much time away from dueling practice," Gabrielle admitted.

Su nodded, not being one to argue with that argument.

"Harry here could have been made a seeker too," Pansy pointed out, forcing Harry to briefly explain the story of last year back when he had been offered the seeker position to Fleur and Gabrielle.

"I think it's kind of interesting that most of us could have taken up Quidditch but chose dueling instead," Gabrielle commented.

"Dueling is far more valuable not to mention more fun," Su claimed, "besides after the stuff that happened last year and already this year I'm betting we see more action before it's all over. Hagrid even offered to take me to the acromantula nest in the Forbidden Forest with him."

"You can count me out for that, me and spiders just don't mix," Pansy replied, shuddering at even the thought.

"Just please don't try and go looking for trouble again," Harry begged Su. He knew that she liked a bit of adventure but he had hoped that she might have toned down a bit after nearly dying after going after Quirrell last year.

"I promise I won't try actually looking for trouble," Su amended, "besides Hagrid goes in there all the time and as long as I'm with him I should be safe."

Glad to see that she was now a bit more careful, he turned back to watching the tryouts as Susan now got her turn, quickly flying through the goal post and throwing the quaffle right through it.

Cheering loudly for her, they watched as Susan continued to impress until she finally soared down to rejoin the rest of the Hufflepuffs.

Finally after a few more hours, Susan gleefully came up to them all and said, "I did it! I'm on the team!"

"Congratulations," Pansy told her, causing Susan to smile even wider.

"You'll do great," Harry told her, clapping her on the back and privately hoping that she won as he had just learned that Malfoy had managed to buy his way onto the Slytherin team by buying all the team members Nimbus 2001s.

"Thanks Harry," Susan said unexpectedly giving him a quick kiss.

"I think we might be starting to spoil Harry," Su commented because of the kiss.

"Then I decided to spoil him and myself a bit," Susan countered while grinning, knowing full well that Su was merely teasing her.

"Well lets just hope that Susan's new team runs Draco and the Slytherins into the ground," Pansy claimed, not all bothered by the fact that it was technically her own house she wanted to see lose.

Pansy still had a serious vendetta against Malfoy.

DUELDUELDE

When Halloween finally came around as they sat there for the Halloween feast, Su looked over at Harry from across the table and asked, "so what type of monster do you think they'll bring into the school this year?"

"I hope none of them," Hermione commented from nearby, evidently still remembering last year's scary encounter with the troll.

Harry was just eating his first bite of pumpkin bread trying to swallow so he could answer Su's question when he heard a strange voice, but over all the noise he couldn't make out what it was saying. It sounded very creepy though.

"Can anyone else hear that?" Harry asked them.

"Yeah its the sound of Seamus eating with his mouth open, you can hear it all the way over here," Su suggested, earning a laugh from everyone else as Harry chose then to disregard it.

However 20 minutes later, Filch came striding in with Mrs. Norris cradled in his arms, not moving.

"Murder!" Filch roared now looking accusingly at all of the students, "someone murdered my cat."

Dumbledore went over to examine the cat, and proclaimed, "it has only been petrified Argus."

"What could have petrified a cat?" Susan asked in bewilderment.

"A monster of some kind," suggested Su, actually having the nerve to be gleeful about the whole thing.

As Harry looked around, he realized she wasn't the only one, Mr. Norris had always been hated and he could see why no one was particularly upset by the news.

"Whatever it is, it even has Dumbledore worried," Fleur noticed.

"It could just be the twins or someone playing a joke," Gabrielle pointed out, but even she seemed to suspect it was something more than that.

"Will everyone please remain here until we've sorted this all out?" Dumbledore ordered as he went with Filch to where the cat had been petrified.

DUELDUELDE

Mrs. Norris getting petrified was a topic of a lot of conversation over the next few weeks, but for the most part no one was particularly concerned as of course Mrs. Norris had always been hated by the students. As for just what happened to her, Dumbledore nor anyone else seemed to have any definitive answers.

It wasn't until a few weeks later however that another victim was discovered, this time a 5th year Hufflepuff named Alice Crosby. With an actual person petrified, this left everyone actually worried, wondering if it could happen to them next.

In addition, a bunch of students were the first to discover the body, with a message written in blood on the walls just over it:

The Chamber of Secrets has been opened

This was a legend Harry hadn't been told but finally Hermione asked McGonagall about it one day during class.

McGonagall looked put off about being asked what she seemed to regard as a silly question but she answered it nonetheless.

"The Chamber of Secrets is merely a legend, a place where Salazar Slytherin claimed to have had some sort of secret chamber or lab, away from the attention of the other founders. It is said to be the home of a monster," she admitted.

With Su sharing a class with him she looked at him and gave him an "I told you so" look.

Rolling his eyes at her, McGonagall insisted on getting back to the lesson leaving all of the students still eager to learn more about the chamber.

"I'll bet that there is some more information on it in the library," Hermione suggested as she ran off to go check.

"I'll bet she doesn't find anything," Su commented, "Dumbledore tends to keep all the books on stuff like that out of the library. For instance I tried looking up info on acromantulas and couldn't find anything."

"I'd imagine you could just ask Hagrid about that," Harry recommended.

"You want to come with me to go visit him?" Su asked.

The other girls quickly declined but Harry finally decided to go with her, as Hagrid had mentioned in passing about wanting to relate a story to him about his parents during their 7th year.

Traveling to Hagrid's hut, they rapped on the door as Hagrid then opened it, beaming widely as he did so.

"Come on in," Hagrid told them as they went inside and sat down together on the single huge chair that Hagrid offered them.

"We thought we'd ask you more about acromantulas," Su asked, "there wasn't anything in the library."

Harry neglected to mention that only Su really wanted to know more about them, but Hagrid answered nonetheless.

"I don't reckon there would be after the uh...," Hagrid began, sounding very nervous.

"After the what?" Su pried.

Finally Hagrid broke down as he began to relate to them about being expelled from Hogwarts about being suspected of opening the Chamber of Secrets 50 years ago.

While Hagrid admitted to having tried to raise a pet acromantula, he insisted that it wasn't even big enough or with enough venom yet to actually kill or hurt someone.

"Aragog could never have hurt that poor girl," Hagrid claimed.

While they were surprised to discover that the chamber had been opened before it was easy to believe Hagrid somehow when he said he wasn't the one to actually open it.

"I'm just worried now they might think I'm doing it again," Hagrid said tearfully.

"Its all right Hagrid, they'll find whoever is doing this," Su soothed, putting a small hand onto Hagrid's knee.

"They sure will," Harry confirmed.

"Thanks, but if there are too many more attacks I can't see them not coming after me," Hagrid told them, "Dumbledore has been defending me but his influence will only last so long."

"While I may not care much for Dumbledore," Su claimed, "I'm sure that he'll continue to help you out and find whoever is doing this."

Hagrid gave a very loud snort into his massive handkerchief and then seemed to compose himself.

"At any rate there isn't much more I can do, I think I owe you that story Harry about your parents," Hagrid told him.

Harry gratefully nodded as he wanted to know everything he could learn about his parents.

Hagrid began telling them about how he had helped James prepare for one of his dates with Lily during their 7th year where Hagrid had gotten one of the hippogriffs to carry a flying carriage over the school and grounds.

After Hagrid had finished, Harry thanked him sincerely for relating that story.

Right after Su reminded him again about telling her more about acromantulas which Hagrid was more than happy to relate.

Harry guessed that nobody had ever actually shown such an interest in them before.

After they had gotten up and left and began making their way back to the castle, Su asked:

"So when were you planning on taking me on a hippogriff ride?" Su teased.

He gulped at that, wondering if perhaps he was now obligated to before realizing that Su was only being her ordinary teasing self.

"It's all right Harry," Su admitted, "we still have plenty of years left at Hogwarts for you to wow me."

"It's been over a year since I've been betrothed to you and I still don't know how to act around you," Harry confessed.

"If it's only sometimes you must already be doing a very good job," Su replied, "I tend to have that effect on people, they aren't really sure what to do with me."

"I've noticed," he answered, "but I think it's one of the things I like about you."

"You're sweet Harry," Su said, earning him another kiss from her.

DUELDUELDE

It was only a few days later after going to see Hagrid that the students learned of a dueling club that was supposed to take place in an effort to help protect them. Since Harry and the girls were all rather into dueling, they decided to check it out only to find to their dismay that Lockhart was the one teaching it.

"Well this looks like its going to be a complete waste of time," Gabrielle muttered, earning a look of annoyance from a group of 3rd year girls just in front of her.

"Of course I'm sure that you are all incredibly glad to learn that I, Gilderoy Lockhart, perhaps the best duelist of the age is your dueling instructor," Lockhart said.

"If he's the best duelist of the age then I invented the cheese cauldron," Fleur quipped.

As Lockhart continued to instruct them, showing them grandiose wand movements that were entirely unnecessary and would probably give his opponent plenty of time to hit him, Harry couldn't help but agree with Gabrielle that this was a complete waste of time and wondering if perhaps he could convince Flitwick to replace him as the instructor.

Even as he was about to tell the others to get out of there, Lockhart singled him out.

"I hear that Mr. Potter is a duelist, not as good as me of course, but a really good one anyway," Lockhart said, "Mr. Potter why don't you come up here and give us a little demonstration?"

Feeling like he couldn't refuse after already being singled out in front of everyone, he got up there as Lockhart waited for him. Harry was about to suggest that he also bring up Gabrielle, Su, or Fleur but Lockhart seemed intent on somebody else.

"Orion Belt, if you could come up here as well," Lockhart told him.

Harry surveyed the 7th year Slytherin, who every time he saw him wore a permanent scowl on his face. This time proved to be no different, he looked like the type who could snap a man's neck without a second thought, and certainly didn't seem happy about being singled out by Lockhart.

"Orion is a trained sword fighter so I'm told, I know that you might have an aversion to muggle fighting, but I assure you that it can certainly come in handy in certain situations and used to be much more widely practiced a long time ago. If you'd like to read a time when I needed a sword to take down a Griffin, feel free to buy my book Gadding with Griffins.

While Harry had to concede that this was actually true about sometimes needing to know sword fighting, he wondered just where Lockhart was going with this.

"We will first have Mr. Potter and Mr. Belt have a good old fashioned sword fight, and then have a magical duel as well, highlighting the strengths of both of them," Lockhart announced, "we'll have you use swords that have been magically dulled so that they can't cause any real harm."

Harry was handed a sword, and as he thought about what he would do, he quickly concluded that he would be no match against Orion in a sword fight. He was far bigger, stronger, and was evidently quite skilled. He might win the magical one because of practice and experience dueling but he had no doubt that Orion would be difficult there as well having quick reflexes from sword fighting and had 5 years of magical education on him.

Still he would do his best, and as the sword fight began, Harry was instantly put on the defensive as his opponent nearly cut his head off as he brought up his own sword just in time.

Orion however tried hitting him again, while he did his best to counter them.

It was quite fortunate that the swords were unable to cause any real harm because otherwise he was pretty sure he'd be dead by now from the many times he was being hit.

It almost seemed like Lockhart was deliberately allowing him to look foolish, perhaps to try and tear down his reputation and fame, being considered as some sort of threat. He certainly wouldn't put it past the glory hound.

Still 10 minutes in, Lockhart finally ended the duel, leaving him panting and gasping while Orion hadn't even worked up a sweat.

When it came time to the magical duel, however, Harry felt much more confident, happy to give Orion a little payback for the thrashing he had just given him.

The duel had only just barely begun however as he fired his first spell at Orion when Orion fired back casting a spell at the dueling platform just in front of him, conjuring a snake right in front of him.

Instead of going directly for him, however, the snake turned towards Justin Finch-Fletchley standing just to the side of the platform.

"Look at me snake," Harry said, trying to divert its attention back to him.

The snake turned back to him, and asked to his shock in plainly discernible English, "you speak my language?"

"Evidently so," Harry told it, "would you mind not attacking that boy?"

The snake said, "I suppose I don't really need to attack him anyway. He looks too big to eat."

Before anything else could happen, one of the teachers who was standing nearby burned up the snake.

As he turned to look at everyone, he noticed that they all wore looks of shock on their faces at him, as if he had done something evil.

"I think that's enough of a demonstration from you Mr. Potter," Lockhart said, looking at him with a look of actual fear.

Grateful to get away from all of the staring, he headed out of the room, followed by the girls.

"You're a parselmouth?" Pansy asked incredulously.

"I'm a what?" Harry asked.

"You can speak to snakes?" Fleur queried.

"Well yes I suppose I can, I talked to a snake at the zoo once but that's about it," Harry admitted.

"This is bad," Susan told him, "parselmouths are supposed to be really rare, the most famous one was Salazar Slytherin, his heir is supposed to be able to speak to snakes too. Everyone is going to think you're him after these attacks on students."

"That's ridiculous," Harry claimed, "I was with you girls when those attacks happened."

"To us of course, and most people know that as well but I know that its going to cause more than a few to speculate," Su replied.

"You British people are really superstitious and paranoid," Fleur claimed, "besides if Harry was a psychopathic evil heir to Slytherin, he'd have killed half of the school by now."

"He isn't even in Slytherin," Gabrielle pointed out.

However even as she said this Harry was reminded that the sorting hat had wanted to put him in Slytherin. Was it possible that... No, there was just no way, he knew he hadn't had any blackouts and could account for his whereabouts during the times of the attacks, so he wasn't possessed or something.

"Personally I think its cool," Su said, trying to reassure him, "I'm sure there are bound to be ways that you could use it in duels."

Gabrielle immediately agreed as they tried to put a positive spin on the whole development.

"Besides," Gabrielle affirmed, "at Beauxbatons they wouldn't bat an eye if a student was a parselmouth, I suppose it just doesn't carry the same meaning as here."

"That would be nothing compared to some of the stuff you see there," Fleur admitted, "we've even got a couple of magic using centaurs going there as students. The swim instructor is an actual mermaid."

"Whoever thinks that of you are just complete idiots," Gabrielle claimed, "nevertheless I'm sure it'll all blow over eventually and everyone will realize they are just being stupid."

DUELDUELDE

A few days later however, as he was coming back from duel training, leaving Gabrielle, Fleur, and Su he headed to the library to hook up with Susan and Pansy.

There he caught Susan and Pansy talking about it before they realized that he was there.

"I finally had to just tell Eloise off," Susan admitted to Pansy, "I can't believe people are already so quick to judge, Harry has done absolutely nothing besides being a parselmouth to deserve that."

"What did Eloise say about me?" Harry demanded, making his presence known.

"Harry," Susan said, looking surprised to see him, "its nothing, don't worry it."

"I think I have a right to know what people are apparently saying about me," he defended.

Susan sighed and said, "she just doesn't really know you that's all, she just said that with you being a parselmouth that it looked rather suspicious with the chamber now open and these attacks going on."

Harry didn't even bother to comment on this, people would believe what they would believe even if it was entirely unfounded.

"What are the Slytherins saying?" Harry asked Pansy.

"To be honest most of them are wondering why you aren't in Slytherin if you can speak to snakes," Pansy admitted, "parselmouths are really rare to begin with but almost every single one has probably been in Slytherin, all the way back to Salazar Slytherin himself."

He just shook his head at this even though wondering if perhaps they might be right, once again being reminded of his sorting.

"Hey it's okay," Susan soothed, "you know that people are just being stupid right?"

"Yeah," he muttered as Susan went and gave him a hug.

"We're with you no matter what people say," Susan said loyally.

He truly was grateful for just how supportive all the girls were being. He somehow knew that they would always be that way.

DUELDUELDE

Even so over the next few weeks he continued to get a lot of odd looks and whispers whenever he walked down the hallway, although fortunately he had gotten a lot of support as well, mostly from the girls and their various friends, with them telling anyone off about it and reminding them of the fact that he couldn't have committed those attacks nor did him being a parselmouth necessarily make him evil. Eventually this seemed to work for at least the lower years as far as convincing them of this but there were a few notable exceptions.

Proving just how big of a jerk Ron was, he was constantly making stupid comments about him being the heir of Slytherin, seeming to now regard him as a snake in disguise. Su finally ended up turning him into a giant slug while none of the teachers were looking, prompting him to at least be more careful around him.

When he started doing it again whenever he knew a teacher was around to protect him, Su managed to convince Peeves, who was gradually becoming more and more friendly to them, to constantly prank him, even giving him ideas of her own. Su truly had a devious mind, especially when she got Pansy to help her out.

After coming into class constantly smelling of dungbomb, having his hair turned green, and even with a toilet seat stuck around his waist Ron finally went back to avoiding everyone as he was constantly laughed at.

In the midst of all this Susan had her first Quidditch match with Slytherin and Harry and the rest of the girls went into the stands to support her.

"I sure hope she wins," Pansy said, not even caring that she was technically rooting against her own house.

"I'd say that it'll be a hard won game," Harry replied, "the talent for each team is about the same for the most part, although the Slytherin's way better brooms should give them a huge edge. Susan has the best broom on the Hufflepuff team by far to be honest."

"Yeah but the big difference is the two seekers," Pansy pointed out, "Diggory seems to be a way better seeker than Draco. All he's got is a really fast broom."

"Malfoy wouldn't even be on the team if it weren't for him buying the whole team new brooms," Gabrielle argued.

"If Susan and the other chasers can keep the Slytherins from gaining too much of a lead and Cedric can get to the snitch before Malfoy does they have a chance of winning," Harry stated.

As the match began it became immediately apparent that the Slytherins were making full use of their much better brooms, quickly out flying the Hufflepuffs and adding on points.

They however cheered when Susan scored the first goal for her team.

Susan soon proved to be a pretty good player, not to them as they all already knew that, but to the other spectators watching, scoring 3 of Hufflepuffs 6 goals.

The Hufflepuffs managed to keep it at 110 to 60 with Slytherin leading when there suddenly was a flurry of activity as Cedric finally spotted the snitch and went after it, getting to it just before Malfoy could, winning the game for Hufflepuff with a final score of 210 to 110.

As they came out onto the field to celebrate, they quickly found Susan to congratulate her.

"Fantastic game Susan!" Gabrielle said.

"Thanks," Susan said with a huge grin on her face, "did you see Malfoy after the game? He got so mad he actually threw his broom at Madame Hooch. Since the game already ended she gave him a week's worth of detentions."

"Serves him right," Pansy claimed.

The euphoria from watching Susan's team beat the Slytherins lasted for quite awhile as Susan happily regaled them with how the match had gone, sometimes forgetting that they had seen the whole thing.

DUELDUELDE

It was only a few weeks later however that whoever was attacking the students escalated things further with another attack.

Only an hour later, Amelia showed up with much of the Auror force and some other volunteers.

"We're going to be doing some investigating and find out exactly what is going on. I managed to prevail upon Dumbledore that the ministry needed to get involved as these are criminal acts," she informed Harry and the girls as she went to go talk with them, "there have already been two victims, three if you count the cat, and we'll be making sure such incidents don't occur again. We'll find the culprit, don't worry."

"Is there any way that we can help?" Susan asked.

"I'd rather you not get yourself involved, whoever is doing this could be dangerous," Amelia told her.

As she was about to walk away, Ginny unexpectedly came forward looking very nervous, "um...Madame Bones?"

"Yes," she answered her.

"I think I know who's doing this," Ginny tentatively said.

Author's Note: Hmmm...I wonder who it is...


	18. The Heir of Hufflepuff?

Chapter 18

The Heir of Hufflepuff?

"I think I know who's doing this..." Ginny tentatively said.

"How?" Amelia asked, now perfectly attentive.

"You see, it's my brother Ron..." Ginny admitted, "It was a few nights ago, I'd fallen asleep in the Gryffindor Common Room while studying late at night only to be woken up to find that Ron was trying to sneak out late at night."

"When I tried to confront him about it, he just ignored me as if I wasn't even there, it's like he was possessed or something."

"I was hoping that perhaps he was just sleep walking or something but when I stayed up late last night as well to see if he did the same thing, he just shoved me when I got in front of him, and when he finally came back a few hours later he was covered in blood. Can't you help him? He may be a jerk but he's still my brother and I don't think he really knows what he's doing."

"It would seem to match with what I've noticed about Ron, he hasn't seemed to have been around as much, I just assumed it was because he was embarrassed but now I think there might be more to it than that." Harry replied, "Come to think of it I've seen him missing quite a few times very early in the morning when I've woken up."

Amelia nodded, "I'll do my best, it certainly sounds like Ron might be the culprit, and I highly doubt he'd have been able to do this himself, the magic required to petrify someone like the victims would be far above any 2nd year's skills. Whatever is possessing him has to know pretty advanced dark magic and could potentially be very dangerous. We'll need to find Ron and prevent him from hurting himself or anyone else."

Turning to Harry and the girls, she said adamantly, in a tone that offered no argument from them, "I want you to stay here while we locate Ron, am I clear?"

Noticing that she meant business, they all promised to stay there. Amelia, hoping that they would manage to ignore their instincts to help and stay put, left them in the care of one of the Aurors to make sure they didn't try disobeying.

As having the students return to their dorms for the time being had not yet been instituted, she had her Auror force ask around among the students they found to see if any of them had seen Ron Weasley lately while Scrimgeour and another Auror went to go check in his dorm room.

Finally a girl mentioned him seeing him down another hallway, and so she headed over with Tonks, the Auror currently accompanying her, to find out if he was still there.

As soon as she spotted Ron, currently with a small blonde haired girl, she tried to coax him gently, "Ron can you please come with us? We have a few questions for you."

He seemed to recognize them, so it appeared that whatever was possessing him had already gotten strong enough to be able to tell when someone was speaking to them. Based on his currently glazed over expression, she didn't think he was currently in his right mind either.

"Stay back," He yelled, for the first time defensively, "or the girl here gets it!"

She noticed for the first time that he currently had his wand pointed directly at the girl's neck as the girl currently looked terrified. She realized that he had evidently already heard about the Ministry sending Aurors in to catch him and this was his way of protecting himself.

Now at a standoff, she and Tonks pointed their own wands at him as he cautiously backed up, using the girl as a shield. While they probably could have just hit the girl and knocked her out and then hit Ron, there was no guarantee he wouldn't try to hurt her right afterwards before he tried to make his escape. They couldn't take that chance.

At the end of the hallway, Ron paused in front of a door of a girl's bathroom, one she recognized from her Hogwart's days of belonging to Moaning Myrtle.

Ron quickly rushed inside with the girl while they approached slowly but confident that they now had him cornered, it was a bathroom and had no windows or other doors to escape through, they had him cut off or so they thought.

Upon deciding to risk entering after about a minute, they opened the door to find not Ron or the girl, but instead a huge gaping hole to the right of the room which quickly began to seal itself before their eyes and turn into a circle of sinks.

Quickly looking it over there seemed to be no quickly identifiable way how Ron had managed to open and close the door so easily.

As she tried various spells meant to open it back up she was met with little success, leaving her flummoxed as to how to follow. Finally it was Tonks that spotted something.

"There's an engraved snake on this pipe." Tonks pointed out as Amelia bent down to look it over.

It could be simple graffiti and be nothing but she decided to check just to be sure. Waving her wand over it, she found that it had some sort of magic on it that was unknown to her.

"Go get Dumbledore, and hurry." She commanded Tonks.

Hopefully his greater knowledge in such arcane magic would let them know how to open the hole back up in time for them to rescue the girl.

Dumbledore arrived 10 minutes later, obviously out of breath from likely having run very hard in his old age. Yet as he examined the pipe he said, "It appears to be parselmagic, only someone that can speak parseltongue can open it."

"Where are we going to find someone else that can speak that though?" Tonks voiced aloud, "its supposed to be super rare."

"Actually we do have a student that would be able to help us, I dare say they have already told you?" Dumbledore replied, looking over at Amelia.

She shook her head, she knew who Dumbledore was implying, Susan had related the whole incident to her in a letter home about Harry being a parelmouth

"Absolutely not Dumbledore," She disagreed, "I'm not putting Harry into danger like that again."

"How else do you expect us to open it then?" Dumbledore asked, "We currently have a student in mortal danger, two if you include Mr. Weasley, we can't afford to waste time exploring other options. We'll simply have to bring Mr. Potter down with us in case we end up needing to use his ability again."

Amelia sighed, she certainly did not like this plan but she realized that she had no choice, she'd have to have Harry come with them. If Harry was hurt in any way, however, she knew she would never be able to forgive herself.

"Very well, I'll let you have a rest Tonks and I'll go get Harry myself," Amelia agreed grudgingly.

Of course Harry was more than happy to help when she got him, which did nothing to assuage her fears for his safety. Despite having already proven himself in many different dangerous situations he was still young and she still cared for him.

On the way back Harry suggested finding a couple of brooms to use to fly down the hole just in case the landing wasn't so soft or Ron hadn't set up any booby traps at the bottom, which she quickly dispatched one of her Aurors to get.

With her Auror force having already gathered inside the bathroom, she selected half a dozen of them to accompany her down while Harry got in front of the picture of the snake.

"What am I supposed to do?" Harry asked.

"Tell it to open?" Tonks suggested.

Instead of saying open a strange hissing sound emanated from Harry's lips as the snake suddenly moved as the circle of sinks began to open up to the huge gaping hole.

"I'll go first." Amelia announced, peering down the slide, still unable to see the bottom, "Tonks and Brogard, you can accompany me."

As soon as Amelia got down to the bottom she told Brogard to go back up with her and Tonks' brooms and get the others.

She allowed herself to look around and quickly spotted what appeared to be an enormous snake skin surrounded by many small animal bones, mostly rats.

As she got closer, Dumbledore finally came down next on a broom next to her and noticed the same thing.

"Extraordinary," Dumbledore breathed in amazement, "it seems that a fully grown basilisk has been living down here. Judging from its size I'd guess it has to be many hundreds of years old, it may even be a beast that lived back in Salazar Slytherin's day."

"Now we know what kind of monster we'll be dealing with, if I'm correct in assuming that whatever has been possessing Ron Weasley has been using it." Amelia concluded, even though that was not particularly reassuring, basilisks could kill you simply by looking at them.

"No indeed," Dumbledore confirmed, "I'm also afraid that any roosters we might have used to kill it with were recently killed, no doubt to protect against us using one against it."

"Is there anything else we might use?" Amelia asked. She had rather limited knowledge on basilisks, as she couldn't even think of a time that one had been known to exist, and while she and Dumbledore may have had their differences she valued his expertise.

"Fawkes might be able to help us." Dumbledore suggested, sticking out his arm as if waiting for the bird to come and perch on it.

Amelia wasn't entirely sure just what Dumbledore had in mind but was surprised when Fawkes flew all the way down there, dropping something at Harry's feet.

As Harry stooped down to pick it up she realized that it was the Sorting Hat.

"A hat?" One of the Aurors asked incredulously, "The bird thinks we can beat a basilisk with a hat?"

"Do not underestimate Fawkes," Dumbledore replied wisely, "the Sorting Hat has the ability to call forth various items once owned by the founders in times of trouble. Perhaps Fawkes thinks that there may be something that will help us."

As Harry looked at the hat, she noticed what appeared to be something golden sticking out of the brim. When Harry reached in and grabbed whatever it was, she realized it was a cup.

She noticed that Dumbledore looked shocked as he announced, "That would be the cup of Hufflepuff."

"Right, because a cup will be perfect against a giant, glare-killing snake," The same pessimistic Auror replied sarcastically.

"I think you fail to recognize its potential power." Dumbledore concluded, "Any liquid drunk out of that cup will give its drinker immunity from various spells for a limited time, including, if I'm not mistaken, the same type of magic that a basilisk uses to kill anything that looks into its eyes. It should negate at least the biggest danger that we might face against it."

Harry went over and handed the cup to Dumbledore, who immediately pointed his wand at the cup which began to fill with water.

Draining the cup himself by drinking it all down, Dumbledore said, "It appears to be fine and to be in working order, everyone get a drink before we continue."

After they had all taken a drink, Amelia led them further down the tunnel to where there were a couple of statues of snakes.

"If you would please, Harry?" Dumbledore asked him. Harry nodded and hissed at one of the statues, causing the door to open.

Inside they found a large open space and in the center of it lay the girl that Ron had kidnapped while Ron stood over them.

"I think you had better go find some place to hide," Amelia cautioned Harry, "we'll take it from here."

Although Harry wasn't happy about being left out, he backed up and went and found a room off to the side to slip into and wait for the fighting to stop.

As Harry went inside the room, he was surprised to find that it had a few books lying on a dusty bookshelf and as he opened one was surprised to find that it was in a weird language that he didn't immediately understand, yet in looking at it more closely he found that it was rapidly turning into English,

The Parselmagic Spell Book, he read. Evidently this was written in Parseltongue which is why he understood it. He would have never guessed however that it had its own written language.

Examing it further it appeared to be a book that described various parselmagic spells. Since he had nothing better to do, he continued to look through it, hoping that the others would be all right, feeling that somehow he should be involved, helping in some way but knowing that he had already promised Amelia.

A few minutes later, however, he heard a scream and a crunching sound, prompting him to open up the door a peak to find that the basilisk had been set loose and one of the Aurors had unfortunately been a victim of it. He'd peeked his head out just in time to watch as the basilisk swallowed him whole.

Dumbledore was alone, currently dueling with Ron, who was displaying far greater dueling skills than Ron would ever be capable of, a complete 180 from his duel with Pansy. While Dumbledore was no doubt more than a match for him, his age appeared to be slowing him down against Ron.

Meanwhile, the Aurors as well as Amelia were trying various spells on the basilisk, none of which seemed capable of piercing its magic-resistant hide.

Amelia hit one of its eyes, likely permanently damaging it, and another Auror, seeing her example hit the other.

The beast roared in pain as its head smacked right onto the Auror that had just hit it in retaliation, causing him to collapse onto the ground and likely killing him in the process via a pulped ribcage. At any rate, he did not get back up again.

He saw the basilisk now using its sense of smell to try and locate the Aurors and saw it slithering towards Amelia.

Harry felt that he could no longer stand idly by as he pulled out the two daggers that Su had given him for Christmas, having taken them with him just in case.

He ran right up to the beast just as it was about to go down on top of Tonks, who had gotten too close to it and was desperately trying to get out of its way.

Pushing Tonks out of the way, the basilisk struck just to the right of him, and, seeing his chance, he stuck his first long dagger deep into its already damaged eye.

It roared in pain and attempted to open its mouth and come down to swallow him whole, but before it could he threw his other dagger deep into its open mouth, causing it to clamp down and shove the dagger deeper in until it pierced its brain. It was pure luck that he'd managed to hit the small area of it's mouth that was thin enough so the dagger would pierce the brain, but he'd done it and the beast writhed in pain before it collapsed dead onto the ground.

"Is it really dead?" One of the Aurors asked cautiously.

Amelia went over to inspect it and confirmed, "Yes it's dead, go check on Pucey and see if he's still alive."

One of the Aurors went to go check and reported, "He's dead too I'm afraid."

Amelia grunted, obviously unhappy about losing two lives.

Dumbledore then came over with Ron's currently floating body suspended in front of him, "I just took out young Mr. Weasley and whatever was controlling it. It appears to have been controlling him with this."

He held out the remains of what appeared to be a heavily burnt and damaged black book but gave no clue as to how he had destroyed it.

"Come on, let's get out of here." Amelia suggested, still looking disgusted at even being in such a place.

"Wait." Harry said suddenly as he ran back to the room with the books. He grabbed the few books that were there and took them with him, returning to the others to find Dumbledore currently examining the dead basilisk.

"We can go now." Harry told them all as they gratefully all headed back, not wanting to spend anymore time in such an awful place.

With the body of the dead Auror, along with Ron and the girl, who were still unconscious, they headed back up through the tunnel, flying up the hole and finally all getting back into the bathroom.

As the Aurors all tried to leave, Tonks, Harry, Amelia, and Dumbledore lingered back.

"I just wanted to say thank you, Harry, for saving my life, I won't forget that," Tonks said gratefully, planting a kiss on his cheek in gratitude before heading off to join the rest of the Aurors.

"It appears that Mr. Potter is indeed full of surprises today, killing a basilisk and producing this." Dumbledore said holding up Hufflepuff's cup, "It looks like the hat may have been wrong about you at first."

"What do you mean?" Harry asked.

"It looks like it chose the wrong house for you." Dumbledore told him simply.

Harry was dismayed, evidently Dumbledore had somehow learned of the hat wanting to put him into Slytherin, he supposed it was too much for him to hope, being a parselmouth after all. "Does this mean that I have to be in Slytherin?" He asked glumly, not looking forward to sharing a room with Malfoy and his cronies.

"On the contrary it appears that you need to be in Hufflepuff." Dumbledore argued.

"How is that possible?" Amelia demanded.

"Only a true Hufflepuff could have pulled that cup out of the hat." Dumbledore countered, "I'm not sure of the Hat's reasoning why it put you into Gryffindor in the first place, but fortunately we have the Hat with us here right now to decide which House you truly belong in." He said, handing Harry the Sorting Hat

Harry jammed it onto his head, now slightly easier to keep from slipping over his eyes.

"Don't worry," The Hat immediately told him, as if immediately reading the first thought that had been in his mind, "whatever you say to me will only be heard by you and me so you don't need to worry about them overhearing."

"What House am I really supposed to be in?" Harry demanded of it.

"I told you when I Sorted you that you would do well in Slytherin." The Hat told him, "You have many of the same qualities that Salazar Slytherin would have admired. I also knew that you were a parselmouth, a trait that Salazar valued above all others and would have likely insisted that you join Slytherin for that very reason.

"So I really should be in Slytherin then?" Harry concluded morosely.

"If I had acted as Slytherin would have wanted me to you would have been sorted there," The Hat told him, "but I sensed that there was a lot more to you than that and had traits that were truly far more valuable. Gryffindor courage and strength for one, enough to make even Godric think you should be in his House."

"Then am I really supposed to be in Gryffindor?" Harry asked, far happier.

"I chose Gryffindor for you in your first sorting because where you should go was so evenly matched and you were already biased towards Gryffindor because of your time spent with Mr. Weasley and Hagrid."

"I would say that I'm no longer biased towards any of the Houses though," Harry said truthfully, he had friends and fiancees in every house now, and while he now happily spent much of his time with Gabrielle who was now in Gryffindor, he would be happy to spend it with each of the girls.

"That thinking of equality and friendship are very strong traits found in Hufflepuff."

"Then Dumbledore was right, I am supposed to be in Hufflepuff?" Harry replied.

"Dumbledore does not fully understand the intricacies of the power that the Founders gave me." The Hat told him, "Anyone with strong enough Hufflepuff traits as you do might have summoned the cup. However your good thinking leads me to the last House and how you exemplify the traits there: Ravenclaw. Since you match so well the traits found in each house I have to once again leave it up to you and your decision."

Harry thought about it and he realized that the answer was not really so easy since he had friends and girls that he was now betrothed to in each house. He knew that such a decision meant that he would be favoring one girl above another as to which he wanted to spend the most time with. Each girl had different traits and personalities, as well as things that he liked about each one. He knew that he couldn't with a good conscious, choose which one.

"Can't you somehow decide for me?" Harry asked the hat.

"I already did that once. Now it is your turn to truly decide who you really are."

This was proving to be very hard, even harder than the basilisk he had just got done fighting.

Which house would he choose?

He must have sat there for who knows how long already and Amelia and Dumbledore were no doubt getting anxious.

Trying to reflect more upon which traits he valued most in each house, he couldn't help but first think of friendship and just how many good friends he had made in each house. However as he did so, he thought of Susan and how she tried to be a good friend to everyone, just how loyal she had been to him, especially when everyone thought he was the heir of Slytherin.

Trying to dispel Susan from his mind as it wasn't really helping him decide, he thought of the traits of Slytherin, which only reminded him of Pansy, who while not the bravest of people or the best fighter, more than made up for it with her cunning, coming up with brilliant ways to get things to work for her such as when she had used Peeves to stop Quirrell for them.

Once again, trying to focus on just traits he thought of bravery and intelligence, traits found in Gryffindor and Ravenclaw. However he didn't get far before immediately thinking of Fleur, Gabrielle, and Su who had all of those traits.

Indeed he had enjoyed being able to go to all of his classes with Gabrielle, and wouldn't mind continuing to do so with her. Perhaps he could simply tell the hat to keep him in Gryffindor and ask Amelia and Dumbledore not to mention this impromptu Sorting to any of the girls? They would never know and he wouldn't have to choose between them.

However just as he thought this, he realized that this would be dishonest, he could never keep such a lie from them. He valued each girl and her traits equally and he realized he would not, could not choose between them.

"I won't!" Harry yelled, pulling the Hat off of his head and tossing it onto the ground.

Without waiting for either Amelia or Dumbledore to ask what happened, he ran out of the bathroom not sure where exactly he was going, but he didn't feel it mattered.

He knew he was acting childish, refusing to choose and running out like that but he didn't care at the moment.

Finally heading out of the castle, he found himself walking the somewhat familiar path to the owlery. Perhaps going to see Hedwig would give him some clarity.

Spotting his white snowy owl, she swooped down over to a ledge just level with his eyes.

"Hey Hedwig," He said glumly as he went to go pet her, "you wouldn't happen to know which house I belong in would you?"

Hedwig gave a loud hoot which was indiscernible to him and thus did him no good.

"Thanks anyway..." He said.

Continuing to pet Hedwig until his pet owl finally got bored and flew off, he watched the other owls trying to decide what his decision should be.

It wasn't until a few hours later that he was finally discovered as Gabrielle peeked her head in.

"Girls, I found him!" She called, beckoning the others over.

"What happened Harry?" Fleur demanded, "You go fight a basilisk and then don't bother to go see us afterwards and let us know you're all right?"

"I'm fine." He announced.

"You don't look fine," Susan noticed, looking concerned.

"Its not the basilisk, it's what happened after." He admitted.

"My aunt already told us about that part, about you running off," Susan said, "She said you just ran off after the Sorting Hat tried to put you in a different House."

How could he really express to them what he was feeling?

"The Sorting Hat decided that I was strong in a lot of the traits of all the Houses, and so he decided to make me choose." Harry told them, "The problem is whenever I do that I think of each of you and how much I would like to be able to spend the extra time in classes with each of you. I value each of you for your traits and personalities equally and I feel like if I choose just one House it would be sort of like favoring at least one of you over the others. I just can't do that to any of you."

Each of the girls paused to allow that to sink in, not really sure how to reply.

Finally it was Susan that spoke first, "While I would love to have you in my House and be able to attend all of my classes with you I can't really blame you for not wanting to choose Hufflepuff, I've already had plenty of time to make peace with the fact that I'm going to have to share you."

"I also couldn't ask you to be sorted into Ravenclaw," Su told him, "it would only be selfish of me to ask you to join a House you wouldn't necessarily choose if I didn't push you to."

"I don't want you staying in Gryffindor on my account." Gabrielle claimed.

"Same for me, but I think Slytherin would be a bad idea anyway." Pansy admitted, "I don't think that you staying in the boy's dorm with Malfoy would be a safe idea for anyone involved."

"We'll support you and not be upset at any decision you make." Fleur added supportively.

He watched as each of the girls all nodded.

"Well that still leaves me not knowing what I should choose, I know that Dumbledore and the Sorting Hat are most likely waiting for an answer," he concluded.

"You shouldn't have to make a decision right now." Susan answered, "Come on, let's at least go up to the castle and let you get cleaned up. A basilisk den and an owlery really doesn't make you smell very nice."

Laughing as he probably did smell pretty rank, he went back to his dorm to go take a shower and change while the girls waited just outside the Gryffindor Common Room for him.

As he did so, surveying his room, he thought about; if he should really leave it or not. The answer was a definite yes, it wasn't like he enjoyed sharing a room with Ron and his group, but he knew that it wasn't so bad that he would automatically want to leave. He still had a decision to make, but he figured he still had plenty of time to do it, surely he did not have to make a decision right now.

DUELDUELDE

Dumbledore was still searching for Harry. He needed the boy to be sorted and quickly, he simply did not understand just how important it was that he be sorted into his correct house Hufflepuff.

Having Harry pull the cup out of hat seemed to be a godsend, it was exactly what he and Snape needed for their project, it would speed up the process immensely using its great powers. However if Harry remained in Gryffindor or still refused to be sorted for too long the cup would end up disappearing again in a few days. Harry needed to be a true Hufflepuff in order to keep the cup around for at least long enough for Snape to be able to take full advantage of its powers and bring back his sister and Lily Potter. Otherwise he'd have to track down the cup again and he'd already spent the last decade searching for it. Harry had pulled out the cup so of course he was really Hufflepuff, but was evidently refusing to go there. Hufflepuff was usually full of a bunch of ninnies and weak wizards and most wizards didn't want to go there for that very reason but surely Harry wouldn't think that badly of it? After all one of his girls was in that house.

He'd tried not pressuring him as much at first, assuming that Harry would simply accept his fate, but he was apparently being difficult and needed a little prodding in the right direction. If he could just force Harry to get the hat back on his head, he was sure that the hat would sort him into Hufflepuff, he'd even had a short conversation with the hat himself after Harry had left seeming to confirm that. The hat would only tell him that he would be sorted into the house he belonged in, and that was enough for him, Harry was most definitely a Hufflepuff.

Deciding to see if perhaps Harry had returned to his dorm room since the last time he had checked, he went over there to find his girls currently congregated in front of the portrait hole. He'd just have to convince them that Harry needed to be sorted.

DUELDUELDE

After showering and getting dressed in fresh clothes, Harry headed out again to meet back up with the girls who were right now arguing with Dumbledore who had the Sorting Hat in hand.

"He should be allowed time to make his decision." Susan argued, "I really don't see why you have to rush him."

"I'm well aware of that but I do believe he's had long enough," Dumbledore replied in that annoying sagely tone he seemed to love using so much.

Each of the girls looked prepared to argue further but Harry finally said, "No, girls, its all right."

"Thank you Mr. Potter," Dumbledore said, looking satisfied, "if you would please put the hat back on and we'll get this squared away.

Jamming the hat back on, Harry told the hat, "Pick a number between 1 and 4."

The hat seemed to laugh as he replied with, "You know I'm not going to do that Mr. Potter and I also know that you aren't any closer to making a decision as when you threw me onto the floor."

Harry instantly felt guilty about that.

"It's all right," the hat answered, "now since you still haven't decided, I'm going to do something unique, I'm going to ask each of the girls that you keep thinking about to come up here and give me their opinion on where you should be Sorted."

Now said out loud so that everyone could hear the hat said, "Would Gabrielle Delacour come talk with me?"

Wondering just what it was about, Harry handed the hat over to her so that the hat could talk to her in relative privacy.

After a minute, he called up her sister Fleur, going down the line until he had spoken with each of them before asking Harry to put it back on his head.

"It appears Mr. Potter that each of them are of like mind as you, they all chose, instead of their own Houses, the one that they believed would make you most happy, whichever one that might be." The hat informed him.

This really touched him deeply that they would all care about him enough to so unselfishly make such a request.

"That leaves me with only one option open." The hat told him before announcing to all of them, "I have decided to put all of them in one house and so as to be fair I've chosen none of the 4 houses."

"Come now Flopsy," Dumbledore argued, stating the apparent name of the sorting hat, "they simply must go somewhere, perhaps Hufflepuff since they are so set on being so loyal and friendly to one another."

"You are exactly correct, they have been rather loyal but that doesn't mean they all belong in Hufflepuff," Flopsy answered, "which is why I've decided that it is now time for the 5th founder of Hogwarts to be represented. Back during the time when the school was being built they needed to find a sufficiently magical spot in which to build it. They found such a spot but soon discovered that it was already inhabited by something else, a being who even offered to help them build the school in exchange to be allowed to live in it as long as it remained a school. In times of danger, such a being as always helped protect the school. This is why he is the unknown 5th founder of Hogwarts. Therefore I am within my right to open up a new house, House Peeves!"

Dumbledore looked dumbfounded as if completely unable to believe what he was hearing. Indeed Harry himself wasn't sure if he had heard right, he was now in a house named after Peeves?

"Did Peeves hear what he thought he just heard?" Demanded the poltergeist gleefully, materializing just in front of them.

"No Peeves, I'm sure that Flopsy here is making a practical joke." Dumbledore tried to tell Peeves.

"I wish to assure you Dumbledore I am very serious," Flopsy informed him, "but of course it's all up to Peeves whether he wants his own House or not and wants to accept these students.

Peeves seemed to look each of them up and down, saying odd things like "too skinny" and "could stand to have a bit more fun" before finally deciding, against every comment he'd just made, "Yep, they'll do!"

"Then its settled, their House founder has accepted them which means that the castle will as well." Flopsy replied, "I believe you'll find that there are rooms now available just to the right of the kitchens."

"Peeves has his own House! Yahooooooo..." Peeves cackled gleefully, sounding like he was on his way to inform the whole castle.

"This could either be the best or worst thing that ever happened." Su said, voicing perfectly what they were all feeling and sounding somewhat afraid of what being in House Peeves would be like.

"At least I won't have to listen to Ron's snoring anymore." Harry concluded, thinking of at least one positive.

While Dumbledore continued to have an argument with the Sorting Hat, they traveled down to where their new dormitory was supposed to be located. They found the rooms okay behind a portrait of a court jester, naturally.

Upon noticing them, the jester asked, "Well, it appears that someone has finally seen fit to have me be the portrait for a House. I always rather liked Peeves. What would you like the password to be?"

"How about _password_?" Peeves suggested, suddenly appearing just in front of them again.

Harry suddenly realized that there could be a problem, he didn't exactly fancy having Peeves be able to enter his dormitory whenever he wanted, as it being his House he was now likely to be able to do.

"How about something less conspicuous?" Suggested Susan.

"Peeves if we give you the password you have to promise not to come in and burst in on us without us knowing." Pansy told him.

Peeves replied, "I've never been allowed inside the dormitories before anyway. The Founders made it so I couldn't, the spoilsports." He grumbled.

"How about you can come in every Tuesday and Saturday at 7:00 and we'll give you a list of pranks that you can pull as part of our House meetings." Pansy suggested, "We'll even let you pull them all and get all the credit."

Peeves adopted a mock bow, "You have a deal milady."

Harry noticed that being in House Peeves now extended certain benefits as the poltergeist was now acting much more respectful towards them all than normal. He wondered if it was some kind of loyalty compulsion magic or just the spectral being taking pride in his House and not wanting to spoil relations with them.

They finally selected a password – zippity - and making sure that Peeves knew what it was.

Glad that the matter was settled, or so he hoped, they entered the room to find that it had a dormitory as well, only much smaller than the Gryffindor one, but still more than adequate for all of them. There were two rooms, one to the left and right of them and he quickly found a much much smaller room with a small bathroom and shower to the left that he assumed was just for him, he being the only male member of House Peeves. The room to the right on the other hand was far bigger, with 5 different beds and a huge bathroom. In every case, their things were already laid out for them where they had had them up in their old rooms.

"Not too bad..." Gabrielle commented as she looked around, "It looks like the castle's already made up its mind at least."

"I imagine that Dumbfounded is still arguing with the Sorting Hat though." Su replied

"Welcome to House Peeves everyone!" Susan said to everyone.

DUELDUELDUEL

Meanwhile Dumbledore had just gotten done with his very angry conversation with the Sorting Hat, leaving him wishing that he could somehow burn it and replace it with a less stubborn one, House Peeves indeed! What a complete load of nonsense. Harry was supposed to be a Hufflepuff and anything else was just wrong, he convinced himself. He now had only days before the cup disappeared, which would hardly give Snape time to really do much with it but he would still get a lot done nevertheless. With quite a bit more time there was still a good chance that they might not even need the cup on a permanent basis, he already had everything he needed.

Pulling out the vial of basilisk venom he had secretly collected from the basilisk while pretending to examine it along with a vial of phoenix tears he had collected from Fawkes he dropped each of their contents into the cup and watched it work its magic.

Basilisk venom was some of the most powerful stuff in the world but was unfortunately extremely deadly. The only way to counteract it was phoenix tears, which now mixed in with it would help make it inert. Both now inside the cup, the cup was now mixing both of them together and adding its own magic to it, creating the most powerful substance that had ever been created, the venom no longer a great power of death but of life. So great in fact that it should be able to even bring back someone from the dead. They had a long way to go yet but this was a huge step.

Carefully pouring it into two different vials, he took them both and the cup and prepared to bring them all to Snape.

Author's Note: Yes, their use of the cup means no horcruxes. I have another idea in mind for the reason that Voldemort managed to survive. I figured having Dumbledore trying to force Harry into Hufflepuff instead of Gryffindor as he so often tries to fanfiction was a bit different from the norm. Creating House Peeves just may be the craziest and most brilliant idea ever or the stupidest but I love it nonetheless. After coming up with how Peeves managed to stop Quirrelmort I decided I couldn't resist having him appear more in the story. You have to admit at least it's original.


	19. Working Things Out

Chapter 19

Working things out

Dumbledore currently sat at his office. It had been a long 24 hours for him. First of all there had been going down to the Chamber of Secrets and rescuing Ron Weasley and Terra Andrews.

Followed by the rather eventful re-sorting of Harry Potter and his argument with the Sorting Hat.

Then going to see Snape.

Only to return to his office to be deluged by the parents of Ron and Terra demanding to know just what had happened.

At his age it was all rather exhausting and it wasn't even over yet as he still needed to work out how he was going to work out the schedules for House Peeves. While still cursing the stubborn Sorting Hat, which he had now stuffed into a small drawer in his desk out of annoyance, he was notified by his wards of the presence of someone coming up the stairs to his office.

Madame Bones burst in, not looking very happy at the moment.

"Madame Bones, to what do I owe the pleasure?" Dumbledore asked, trying to be gracious, "May I interest you in a lemon drop?"

"We can dispense with the formalities." Madame Bones said, looking exhausted, "I've had just as long a day as you, I've only just gotten done filing the paperwork on the Chamber of Secrets and what happened to the two Aurors I just lost today and I still have a ton left to do so I think you and I would both prefer if I'm brief."

Grateful that she had to decided to let him off the hook for pleasantries he wasn't in the mood at all to show, he gave a motion for her to proceed.

"I was only just informed of the creation of this new House and my niece, Harry and his fiancees involvement in it." She told him in an unreadable tone.

"I wish to assure you that it was not my idea, in fact I've tried quite hard to get the Sorting Hat to change its mind." Dumbledore said in case she was upset.

"Do you really expect me to believe that you can't fix it, you are the Headmaster after all?" Madame Bones reminded him.

"I'm afraid not, as the Sorting of students is something that has always lied with the school itself and the Sorting Hat." Dumbledore answered her, "I would love to see it be changed but unfortunately my hands are tied. You are however free to try and reason with the Sorting Hat yourself if you wish."

"What did the children say when they were Sorted?" Madame Bones asked him.

"They seemed quite pleased to now all be together to be honest." Dumbledore admitted.

Madame Bones seemed to stew over this then said, "Well I suppose if they are happy and it doesn't affect their studies I can imagine I would have any further problems with it provided you take certain necessary precautions."

"I'm glad you seem to think so, perhaps you could handle all the logistical problems I now have to deal with as a result of it." Dumbledore told her.

As far as he was concerned on the issue he was fed up with it, he did not need any further problems with Madame Bones nor spend the time figuring it out himself, if she suggested something he'd likely do it.

"You could probably have them share with any of the other houses." Madame Bones suggested, "It's not like the class sizes are very large to begin with. You can have Fleur since she is in a different year from them do the same only in her year."

Dumbledore paused to consider this. It would be the most practical and easy solution.

"I'll keep it under advisement," He said diplomatically, "is there anything else?"

"I have to admit that I am concerned now that they are all together without any other supervision or any other students to deter them from any... activities that they may want to engage in in later years." Madame Bones remarked.

"I quite agree, which is why I was just trying to think of a Head of House for them who can check up on them from time to time." Dumbledore suggested, "I believe I'll ask Flitwick to do it in addition to his responsibilities in handling the Ravenclaws."

Madame Bones nodded, "I think that would be a good choice since they already know and respect him. Though I think there should be someone else as well, someone actually there in the House."

"I'm still working on that," Dumbledore said, "I do believe however that we will be safe for the time being."

"See that it does, Dumbledore." She cautioned in a tone that squarely laid responsibility in that regard on him, "The kids are already good kids, but I was a teenager once too and I know what they can get up to if given the opportunity."

She seemed to want to say something further but then his wards once again warned him of someone else coming up the stairs.

"One moment..." Dumbledore told her as the door burst open once again revealing Lucius Malfoy, causing him to then tell her, "If you'd be willing to wait for a moment at the end of the stairs I would appreciate it."

She shook her head, "We'll just talk later in a few days. I've got to go see the children and then finish up that paperwork if I'm to get any sleep in before work tomorrow morning."

After she had left, Dumbledore turned towards Lucius Malfoy.

"What can I do for you?" Dumbledore asked.

"I was saddened to learn of the loss of the two Aurors and the kidnapping of two students." Lucius told him.

Evidently Lucuis was here to try and take advantage of the tragedy and try and disgrace him, not all fooled by the thinly veiled suggestion that he actually cared about any of the victims.

"Yes, a very unfortunate incident indeed," Dumbledore admitted, "but at the very least it appears the danger is over now and the school is once again safe."

"How wonderful," Lucius said sarcastically, "I must say however that if it weren't for your mismanagement of this school perhaps these incidents wouldn't have occurred."

Ah, there it was, the accusation already. Two could play at that game.

"Perhaps if you hadn't smuggled what was responsible for all of the problems they wouldn't have occurred at all." Dumbledore answered.

"That is complete nonsense," Lucius tried to argue.

"On the contrary," Dumbledore said, "before the spirit of what was possessing the diary, an imprint of himself left behind by a young Voldemort was destroyed, he confessed to me the method in which he came into young Ronald Weasley's hands. It evidently knew just where it had come from and to whom it once belonged to before then."

"There's no way of proving that." Lucius seethed.

"Indeed not, but at the very least I know and I'll have a pretty good idea of whom to look to should I find other such dangerous items in my school again." Dumbledore replied calmly.

He hoped that Lucius would not try anything further, not because he didn't think he'd be pardoned of any suggestions of mismanagement, but because he was already rather tired and didn't want to get into it with him at the moment. Fortunately however his mention of the diary had unbalanced him just enough to give it up, at least for now.

"We'll just see about that..." Lucius replied, turning away and leaving in anger.

Meanwhile, while Dumbledore was talking with Lucius Malfoy, Madame Bones descended the stairs to find a house elf currently standing at the foot of them.

"Are you Lucius Malfoy's house elf?" Madame Bones asked.

"Yes Madame." The house elf said respectfully.

"What's your name?" Madame Bones asked.

"Dobby." The elf replied.

Amelia's eyes widened, she remembered reading about Dobby from one of Harry's letters home to her. "Are you the Dobby that tried to warn Harry Potter about the danger being presented at Hogwarts?" she asked.

Dobby nodded, "Yes Madame, Dobby was only trying to save Harry Potter and Dobby didn't know of the true greatness of him."

"It's all right." She said as she noticed that the house elf looked scared and seemed ready to hurt himself.

"I'm guessing that you went against the wishes of your master in doing so and for that I thank you." She thanked him, "What will he do to you if you if he finds out you did so?"

"He will likely kill me." Dobby replied before he suddenly grew fearful again and began to hit himself with his fists.

She could tell that he had a deep fear of his master and him resorting to murder instead of simply giving him clothes certainly did not sit right with her even though the murder of a person's own house elf was perfectly legal under wizarding law. She was suddenly struck by a possibility that she could make the law work for her, although it would involve asking Dobby a question that most house elves would find deeply offensive.

"Dobby how would you like to be free from your owners?"

Dobby's eyes grew real wide, seemingly incapable of being able to believe such a proposal but not in the way she might have suspected; with absolute abhorrence like she had just uttered a dirty word.

"Dobby would be immeasurably grateful to be away from his master," Dobby answered before sighing, "but it is impossible."

"Actually, it is." She insisted, "According to wizarding law a house elf can buy his freedom from his master should he so choose. Having a house elf choose to leave their master willingly is extremely rare but the law does allow for it."

She did not add that the law had only been so easily passed because even Pureblood wizards rightly assumed that almost no elf would ever take or even be given such an opportunity. For Dobby to even want freedom from his master would no doubt disgust other house elves, but working for the Malfoy's she really couldn't blame him.

"Dobby hasn't any money, his master would never allow him to have any of his own to buy his freedom from them." Dobby replied.

"Here you go, now you do." She told him, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a single galleon. With the price of a house elf having been set low as to make it more possible for a house elf to actually buy his freedom and the law having not been updated for inflation rates in a very long time, a galleon would be sufficient.

Dobby took it, looking at it like it was an entire treasure chest.

This would certainly not make Lucius happy, but it wasn't as if she really cared if he was unhappy, especially after all the garbage he had pulled and gotten away with over the years. Besides if she could save his clearly abused house elf she supposed it was worth it.

Lucius came down the stairs in a huff and he yelled at Dobby, "Come Dobby, you witless worm, let's get out of here."

He gave him a kick for good measure sending Dobby flying but he still managed to hold onto his galleon, clutching it for dear life.

"Here you go master," Dobby said, scrambling back over to him and handing the galleon to him.

"Did I drop this?" Lucius asked.

"This is Dobby's galleon to buy his freedom with." Dobby answered.

Lucius looked incredulous, "You fool, that isn't yours, probably just mine or someone else's that dropped it, that's stealing and you'll be punished for it."

He looked ready to kick Dobby again but then Madame Bones intervened.

"I gave it to him to buy his freedom with so he is now under house elf and wizarding law free from you." She told him.

Lucius looked livid, unable to believe that she would doing something like that. "YOU LOST ME MY SERVANT!" He roared, pulling his wand on her and hitting her with a spell that knocked her down and gave her a nasty cut on her arm.

She had chosen to let the spell hit her, realizing it was non-lethal and gave her an opportunity she had been yearning for.

Before she could do anything further however, Dobby used his own magic to freeze Lucius and prevent him from being able to move.

She got up and used the opportunity to cast a binding spell on Lucius hands and bound them up, pocketing his wand as well.

"I do believe you've just attacked a member of magical law enforcement, that's a fine and prison time for you." She told him.

"It'll never hold up in court, I'll bury you in paperwork from my lawyers." Lucius seethed as soon as he was able to talk again.

"I don't intend to fight it," She countered, "but I still am legally allowed to hold you for 24 hours while you wait to be interrogated for your crime."

"You wouldn't dare you crazy witch," Lucius roared, "I'll have your job!"

"Good luck," She scoffed as she began escorting him to the front of the school, "you've been trying for years to have my job, me putting you in a jail for a night wouldn't change that."

Madame Bones smiled as she held her wand on him and watched him walk, her job was based on a 4 year election from all of the wizards in Britain rather than as a direct post from the minister and she always won without anyone to oppose her. She knew quite well that Lucius had tried to get somebody to run against her but always failed, for good reason, nobody was stupid enough to try it.

After putting a silencing spell after he ranted and raved at her, she turned to Dobby who was still following her.

"Thank you, Dobby." she told him.

"It be Dobby's honor Madame." Dobby answered.

"So where are you going to go now?" She asked.

He seemed to look uncertain but finally said, "Since Madame gave Dobby the money to buy his freedom with, Dobby feels honor bound to now become Madame's house elf."

"You don't have to do that Dobby and I already have a house elf but if you would like you may serve me if you wish until you feel the debt has been paid." She suggested, "If you would like to go to my house, you have permission to go and wait for me there and I'll discuss it further with you later."

Dobby nodded gratefully and cracked out to where her house was.

After taking him to where Moody was, who seemed quite pleased to be given the task of escorting Lucius Malfoy to his night in prison, she headed over to where she had heard the children would now be living.

After getting to where the portrait guarding the entrance was, she realized she didn't have the password.

"I'm sorry I can't let you in unless you know the password." The jester acting as the guardian announced.

Stamping her foot, she wondered just what the password could be.

"Does old Missy Bonesy not know the password?" Peeves the poltergeist asked, appearing next to her.

She suspected he had been hanging around just to wait for anyone else to go gloat to about having his own House. It also suddenly occurred to her that it being his House Peeves might actually know the password.

"Do you know the password Peeves?" she asked.

"Maybe," he answered, seemingly pretty happy about knowing something that she didn't.

"Give it to me then." She answered impatiently.

"What are you willing to give me for it?" Peeves asked.

Too tired to play games by that point she tried a strong arm tactic.

"I could always have Dumbledore install the Bloody Baron as House Peeves' ghost if you don't tell me what the password is." She offered.

Peeves wide smile suddenly disappeared as he seemed to realize she wasn't messing around. "Fine, you're no fun," He pouted, "the password is zzzzzipittyyyyy."

Peeves flew off even as he said the password, stretching out the word to make it harder to understand.

"Zippity." She told the jester causing the portrait to swing open for her.

She found the children just getting ready for bed and after finding out just how they were doing, pleased here that they were happy to be there, she said. "I just spoke with Dumbledore on how he plans to work things out." She told them.

"I'm sure he wasn't too happy." Su grinned.

"No, he wasn't." Madame Bones answered, returning the grin before then getting serious.

"He's going to have a Head of House be appointed to check on you, probably Flitwick." She informed them, "He'll be working on making sure someone is around on a more frequent basis to make sure that you're better protected and make sure you don't get into any mischief."

"Mischief, what mischief?" Susan asked, trying to look innocent.

"I think you know what I mean," she said, "besides I was your age too and then as I got older I suddenly encountered certain temptations to..."

Everybody groaned mid-sentence to that.

"Just promise me that you won't do anything and behave yourselves." She asked them all.

After extracting each of their solemn promises she turned to Harry again, "I'll especially be looking to you, if you take the virginity of any one of these girls underage I'll castrate you, do I make myself clear?"

Seeing at her totally serious looking expression, despite his better judgment, Harry shook his head. "If we feel we're ready we'll advance our relationship. You've taught us what we need to know so we won't be going into it blind."

He stared back at her, just as seriously. They held eachother gaze for what felt like an eternity for Harry before she gave a sort nod. She didn't like it, but she respected the students in the room and had faith in their judgment.

Giving each of them a kiss on the forehead, she toned it down a bit and talked to them for awhile how school was going and then made her leave, hoping that she was doing a good enough job raising them.

DUELDUELDUEL

Lucius had not had a good time as he was forcefully manhandled by the idiotic Auror Moody who happily escorted him to the cell usually reserved for people in line to be interrogated.

Quickly shoving him in, he was perturbed to find the ghastly conditions he was currently in, no running water or a bathroom, just a simple cell with no windows and two small cots to sleep on.

Once again promising that he would get Madame Bones fired, he sat down against the wall to wait things out before either his lawyer showed up or they finally hauled him for "questioning."

It was only a half hour later, however, when his cell door was opened again, only it was not his lawyer or someone wanting to interrogate him but someone else.

Another prisoner with long black hair that obscured what little face he could see as he was currently looking down at the ground entered and waited for Moody to shackle him to a metal ring on the other side of the room.

"I decided to bring in one of your death eater pals to help keep you company." Moody replied, "I figured that he could stand to be questioned right after you for at least one of the million crimes I've heard he's committed. Not like he has anything better to do."

"You can't put me in with one of these common criminals." Lucius insisted.

"Well, seeing as how we currently only have one holding cell for those up to be interrogated and you voted against spending the money to expand in the last Wizengamot meeting I think I'm well within my rights to." Moody claimed before his expression cracked and he began laughing.

Lucius shook his fist at him as he left, leaving him and the still unidentified prisoner alone.

He supposed it might not be so bad, he realized, as he knew most of the death eaters currently rotting in prison.

"What's your name prisoner?" Lucius asked him from where he sat on the other side of the cell, wondering if perhaps he hadn't already gone mad.

As the prisoner finally looked up to look at him, however, he gasped as he looked into the gaunt, haggard face of who could only be Sirius Black.

Out of all the Death Eaters that Moody could put him with, Moody had chosen Black. He had evidently done his homework, correctly assuming that he and Black had never gotten along, even though he wasn't entirely sure how he had known.

The fact that Sirius Black was no Death Eater, something that Moody wouldn't know, but he did, seemed to be all the more cruel.

"Hello Lucius," Black said with a hoarse sounding voice as if he hadn't used it in a long while, "I'm pleased to see you in a place like this."

"It's only for 24 hours until they can no longer legally hold me," Lucius claimed, "then I'll be free and you'll still be rotting in prison."

"At least I never actually committed any crimes and got away with them." Black claimed.

"No, you just got put in prison for the ones you didn't commit." Lucius sneered, "Who got off better in the end?"

Black gave a dry sounding laugh, "I'm not surprised to find that you've known all this time that I was innocent Lucius, I always thought you were deep into your master's inner circle."

"I have no master!" Lucius exclaimed, "Now that the Dark Lord is dead I am far more powerful than he ever was. I'll have the entire Wizengamot in my grasp soon enough."

"Let me know how that works out for you," Black rasped, "unless the day count I've been keeping on my cell wall is incorrect, you've already had over 11 years."

"I'd already have it completely under control if it weren't for your half-wit friend's son." Lucius sneered.

This caused Black to scoot up a bit looking genuinely interested now. "Are you talking about Harry, my godson?" Black asked him.

"I don't believe I have to answer any questions of yours." Lucius argued.

"You know I still hear things that your fellow Death Eaters say in this place about you as they scream it in the night." Black suggested, "I'm sure that during my interrogation I might be willing to share such information with Moody. I might even get some extra food rations from it."

Lucius studied Black to see if he was bluffing but he couldn't really be sure, having no idea what one of the Death Eaters who knew him might have let slip in their mad ravings. He supposed what he told him really couldn't hurt.

"Your godson has been proving to be nothing more than a minor setback that's all, he probably has no idea what he's even doing." Lucius claimed, "My son Draco was set to marry the daughter of Lord Parkinson, cementing an alliance between us and allowing me to gain control of the majority of the Wizengamot. However the _boy-who-should-have-died_ ended up winning her hand in marriage in a duel set up by my idiotic son."

"Harry is betrothed to someone?" Black asked in shock.

"To 3 different girls now if what my son has told me is correct." Lucius growled at the potential influence lost, "He's also got 2 Veela he's cavorting around with now, I wouldn't be surprised if the half-wit has them under some sort of contract too."

"I had no idea James' son would be quite the ladies' man so young, but good for him." Black cheered, obviously pleased at the news.

"I'll get to him soon enough, don't you worry." Lucius hissed in an effort to wipe the smirk off his face.

Black looked highly upset by this comment, "You do anything to hurt Harry and I'll kill you, you understand?"

Lucius scoffed, "Like you can do anything to me in prison."

"Then I'll break out of prison and kill you myself." Black said in a crazed sounding voice.

Perhaps Azkaban had had an effect on his mental stability after all.

"Good luck with that," Lucius uttered, "your boy is safe for the time being under Dumbledore's watchful care, but I'll get him the next time he isn't there to protect him, just you watch."

Sirius pulled at his shackles in an attempt to rush at him but found that they were simply too hard to break.

Lucius gave a laugh and chose to remain in silence until he was finally led out for the frivolous questioning and then quickly released by his lawyer.

DUELDUELDUEL

The next morning, Harry and the girls all headed down for breakfast to discover that a small table had been set up for each of them in the Great Hall along with a large banner just above it displaying the colors purple and orange with a large white unicorn in the middle of it.

"I wonder why a unicorn is our mascot?" Gabrielle commented.

"I'm pretty sure it's either the castle, the Sorting Hat, or peeves' idea of a joke," Su answered, "Unicorns are supposed to symbolize purity and kindness towards others, the exact opposite of what Peeves is. Probably meant to be ironic." She grinned slyly at Harry, "There's also the untouched maiden aspect of it."

As Harry turned red as Su's exaggerated salacious look Susan answered, "I don't care who or why it was chosen, I think its gorgeous." while still looking up at it.

Sitting down at their new table, they mutually agreed to continue going from House Table to House Table, but were content for today to sit at this one.

They then continued to chat about how things would be different for them in their new house.

They didn't have to wait long to receive at least some answers as Dumbledore finally arrived with their new schedules, handing it to them without a word and leaving.

"Apparently he's still a little upset that the Sorting Hat got one over on him." Pansy said, giggling.

Looking through their new schedules they soon found that, with the exception of Fleur, who had been put in with the 4th year Gryffindors, they now had a schedule that had them sharing classes with each of the other houses.

"It doesn't seem to be too bad." Susan admitted, "At least we are all together now."

"It's going to be great," Gabrielle agreed, before suddenly a frown marred on her face. "What about Quidditch Susan?" She asked.

Susan frowned herself, "I hadn't thought about that."

"I'll bet you could probably try and get a waiver from Dumbledore or something since we don't have our own house team nor enough people to make one." Fleur suggested.

Susan nodded, seeming slightly more positive as the food arrived and they began to pile up their plates.

It wasn't long however before the Weasley twins decide to make their presence known.

"We just heard about you and the Hew house..." George admitted.

"Causing us to wonder, why are you in House Peeves and we aren't?" Fred demanded.

"Just lucky I guess." Su replied.

"Seriously, if there is going to be a House Peeves then we need to be in it." George insisted.

"Try taking it up with Dumbledore." Susan suggested.

"What do you think the first thing we tried doing before we even came over here was?" Fred answered, "Dumbledore just told us off, that it was a mistake and that the House wasn't even meant for pranksters."

"How can a House with the founder being Peeves not be a house for pranksters like us?" George asked.

"Dumbledore obviously isn't very happy about it, but I think it would be more than worrying about having created a new House just for pranksters for whatever reason." Su replied, "Besides, we're more than happy for the most part to have Peeves and you two actually do most of the pranks. I do like to come up with them for Peeves though."

"So you're the one giving Peeves all those great ideas..." Fred mused, "We were wondering how he was stepping up his game so well. We didn't realize it was because someone else was supplying him with ideas."

"Both Su and Pansy have really devious minds when they choose to use them." Fleur complimented.

At Fleur's words, both Fred and George couldn't help but stare at Fleur and suddenly forget about the conversation they were having.

Fleur sighed and gave Harry a kiss, who had been sitting right next to her.

The twins suddenly were broken from their staring and seemed to realize what they had been doing again.

"Sorry," Fred tried to apologize, "didn't mean to do that... well, we'd better go get some breakfast before classes start."

He and George left them, leaving them all alone again.

"Must you always do that?" Pansy demanded of Fleur.

"It's the only way I know to get my Veela allure to shut off." Fleur claimed.

"I don't really mind Pansy." Harry answered.

"I'm sure you don't Harry, I just don't want her to be using you for the wrong reasons." Pansy stated.

Fleur sighed, "I was afraid someone might feel that way, I'll stop if it bothers you, I just hate when people act like that around me."

Pansy seemed to soften at that admonition and said, "I suppose if it's the only thing that works and Harry doesn't mind..."

"To be honest it bothers me too, wondering if perhaps the only reason I kiss Harry so much is just for my own selfish reason." Fleur admitted, "I'd hate to think that I was using him in the same way he could so easily use me."

Now Pansy felt guilty as she realized she might have insinuated that Fleur was taking advantage of someone much the way a slave master might take advantage of their slave.

"I'm sorry," Pansy tried to amend, "I didn't mean it like that."

"Don't worry, I know you didn't, it's something that I just worry about, not you." Fleur answered.

"I can't imagine any of us doing that." Harry said.

"Are you really kissing him that much just because of that or do you really like kissing him?" Susan then asked Fleur.

"While getting rid of my Veela allure is a good excuse, I really do like kissing him a lot." Fleur admitted without hesitation.

"Like I said, I really don't mind." Harry said, blushing himself.

"Then I suppose it's not really a problem." Susan concluded, before getting up and giving him a quick kiss herself, "Just as long as you always save a few kisses for the rest of us."

DUELDUELDE

During dinner, Draco and his two lackeys Goyle and Crabbe went over to their table.

"Well it looks like scarhead and his prostitutes finally joined a house worthy of them," Draco claimed, "I thought Hufflepuff was a worthless house, but evidently now there is a house even lower, House Peeves has to be the stupidest thing I've ever heard of."

Both Crabbe and Goyle guffawed and laughed at that, although this wasn't saying much, they even laughed at Su's why did the chicken cross the road joke she had told them, failing to even notice that she had actually been making fun of them at the time.

"I heard that the sorting hat wanted to put you in Hufflepuff," Pansy countered.

"That's ridiculous!" Draco screeched, "who told you that?"

"I was thinking that it was just a rumor but after the way you just reacted, maybe there is some truth to it..." suggested Pansy.

"I am a Malfoy, and Malfoys only go to Slytherin," Draco tried to insist.

"It sounds like you are just insecure Draco," Pansy answered.

"I AM NOT INSECURE!" roared Draco.

"Sure you aren't," Pansy claimed sarcastically.

The whole school had seen Malfoy be sorted as soon as the hat touched his head but evidently Malfoy was still too insecure to realize that.

"I'll kill any mudblood or traitorous scum who claims I have anything to do with that lowly, pathetic house," Draco answered loudly, earning angry glances from a group of 7th year Hufflepuffs who happened to be walking by.

Seeming to realize he was now being angrily stared at by more than just them, he decided to make a hasty retreat but not before adding one last threat to Pansy

"I'll have you back one day blood traitor, and when that day comes I'll make sure you pay every last thing you've ever done to disgrace the Malfoy name," Draco claimed before finally turning and leaving.

"I do believe we need to teach him a lesson about how great Hufflepuff really is," Susan said.

"Yes we certainly do," replied Pansy.

DUELDUELDE

For their first Peeves House meeting, they all got together in the common room, along with Peeves himself who looked positively gleeful about having his first House Peeves meeting.

"It's about time we did something fun," Peeves said as he pulled out an entire birthday cake seemingly out of nowhere and set it on a table, "I managed to pilfer it from Filch's birthday party. There was no one there so I figured it would only go to waste."

Harry wasn't sure that he could trust a cake being brought by Peeves, but evidently Su was brave enough to test it and take a bit of the frosting.

"It's good," she announced to them after eating it.

"You didn't do anything to the cake did you Peeves?" Pansy asked adamantly.

"No," Peeves tried to say but when he saw Pansy's stern looking face he finally answered, "well yes, but just the lettering."

Harry had noticed that since joining House Peeves, Peeves had already shown them all a great deal more respect than he showed for the other students and had even stopped pranking them. When asked by Pansy he had said it wouldn't be right to be pranking his own house, especially when they already kept him so busy with everyone else.

However, that respect went even further with Pansy, who seemed to enjoy some ability to control Peeves, something that would have been highly coveted by others but which she was now making full use of.

As Harry went to go check out the cake for himself, he noticed that indeed, the letters for Happy Birthday Argus Filch now read:

sappy Birchday Argu Filth

Deciding that it was safe since Su had already cut herself a slice and was now eating it, he went and cut a slice for each of the girls and Peeves.

Of course, Peeves' slice simply went right through him and fell to the floor but he quickly cleared it up with a cleaning spell right afterwards.

"Now let's get to our first item of business," Pansy claimed.

"I don't like business," Peeves pouted.

"Pranking business," Pansy clarified which made Peeves a great deal happier.

"We need to prank Malfoy and in a big way," Pansy said.

"I've already got a plan laid out for that, all we'll need is a few knives and someone to get rid of the body," suggested Su.

"We don't want to kill him," Pansy replied, even while grinning at the idea, "well maybe not just yet anyway. No I've already got a plan less lethal, we're going to turn all of his clothes into Hufflepuff robes, only it will be a delayed reaction spell so he won't know that he is wearing them until he is already in the great hall for breakfast, set to go off at exactly the same time that McGonagall always walks past there on her way to the teacher's table. With any luck, the clothes and Malfoy's big mouth will get them into trouble with her if done right."

"How do you know that that will be when McGonagall arrives?" asked Gabrielle.

"McGonagall is the most punctual person I know," explained Pansy, "she always arrives precisely at 8:00 in the morning. I could set my watch by it. Every time I look over there at 8:00 she is always just arriving."

"How are we going to get inside his dorm room to steal the clothes though?" Susan asked.

"That's where Peeves will come in," Pansy answered before turning to Peeves, "can you do that for us Peeves?"

"It would be my honor," bowed Peeves.

"Can we also do it to Crabbe and Goyle?" asked Gabrielle.

"How about turn his hair Weasley orange?" suggested Fleur.

"We'll do all of those ideas," Pansy replied, "in fact I've already got at least a week's worth of constant pranking for the peacock, it'll serve him right. Peeves will be doing most of them, but this one at least I want as all involved in."

"I really like this house," Peeves claimed, grinning widely.

DUELDUELDE

The next morning, they all sat at the Slytherin table, a bit of a ways down from Malfoy and his two cronies, waiting with baited breath for the delayed spell to take effect.

Finally it did because Malfoy's clothes suddenly took on the exact color of Hufflepuff robes, anyone might have been convinced that he just stole them from a Hufflepuff.

Crabbe and Goyle's were soon to follow.

In addition, his hair turned Weasley red, and his shoes grew about 7 sizes too big.

As Malfoy began to notice the changes in a quite angry tone, spouting off a steady stream of curse words, Ms. McGonagall walked by on her way to the teacher's table and heard his language.

"Mr. Malfoy I do believe that will be quite enough," she exclaimed sternly, "we don't use that kind of offensive language."

"Some mudblood Hufflepuff must have...," Draco tried to say before realizing he had just said another curse word.

They had been counting on Draco's big, fat, dirty mouth to get him further into trouble and it appeared to already be paying off.

"That will be 5 points for your language and another 15 for each of you choosing to wear the wrong house attire," McGonagall exclaimed rather tersely.

"I don't deserve that you whore, do you really think I would actually choose to wear these ghastly clothes on my own?" Malfoy asked angrily.

If Malfoy had any hope of explaining himself it was quickly dashed by calling her a whore, and McGonagall was not pleased.

"That will be detention Mr. Malfoy," she said, "and if I ever hear you say that about me again I'll make it a week."

She walked past and then up to the teacher's table while Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle left to then go change before too many people could notice, even though most of the school was now staring at each of them now, some slightly chuckling and Colin Creevey in Gryffindor actually taking a picture.

Harry made a mental note to ask him for a copy later.

"That was fun," Peeves said quietly and invisibly into Harry's right ear, "10 points to House Peeves."

To Harry's amazement, a shower of purple crystals fell into House Peeves' tube that was meant to help keep track of where they were at in relation to the other houses in winning the house cup.

It was currently still sitting rather low since the house had only just been created, but the fact that Peeves could add points to his own house was certainly an interesting development, although as a recognized founder now he supposed he could see why this might have happened.

As both he and Peeves were the only ones to notice so far, he whispered back grinning, "let's see if we can win some more."

Author's Note: Yeah the house point system is entirely messed up now, if it wasn't already. I mean getting a feast in your honor and the house cup displayed in your head of house's office sure is a great prize. Yes that's me being sarcastic. Snape must have been so proud helping his house win so much. Good luck to Dumbledore trying to work that out with Peeves' new found ability.


	20. A New Low

Chapter 20

A New Low

Several months later Amelia was just sitting down after getting back from lunch when her secretary came in to give her the afternoon itinerary.

"You've got a meeting with Scrimgeour at 2:00 and then you've got an inspection of the new auror manuals before they are handed out," her secretary informed her.

"What do I have right now?" she asked her.

"I was just getting to that," her secretary said, "a Mr. Randinee Thompson is here to see you, he says that he will only tell what he wants to you."

"I remember Randinee," Amerlia replied, "please send him right in."

Nodding, the secretary went out and a moment later Randinee strode right in.

"How are you doing Randinee?" she asked, "how long has it been? 20 years?"

"About that long," Randinee confirmed, sitting down.

"Last time I saw you, you graduated Hogwarts then left to go travel the world, how did that go?" she asked.

"It could have been better I'm afraid," he answered grimly, "that's also what I wanted to come talk to you about."

"Please do tell," she told him graciously.

"At first my travels were rather good, I traveled all over the world off of the money my parents left me," Randinee began, "most of Europe was pretty good, and then so was Asia, but then in Nepal I met a woman and fell in love, I ended up settling down in Nepal and married her, working for the Nepalese ministry there."

"I'm pleased to hear that Randinee," Amelia said graciously.

"Everything was wonderful, for a few years at least," Randinee continued, "but then one night everything changed. While taking the yak we owned out to graze, me and my wife were attacked by a yeti. I tried to shield my wife from it, but it left me grievously wounded and knocked unconscious. When I came to the yeti had gone and so had my wife.

As soon as I was healed enough, I went out in search of the yeti and my wife, ignoring everyone's insistence that she was probably already dead. It took me a year to finally track it down and kill the beast and rescue my wife, only for her to die a few days later from the afflictions she had suffered as a result of her capture by the yeti."

"I am terribly sorry to hear that," Amelia told him sincerely, deeply saddened to hear of his loss.

"To make matters worse, the money that I had spent in hiring people to help track down my wife exhausted my finances and so when a publisher offered me a huge amount of money to share my story I took the offer.

After getting my story, however, he obliviated me of all of my memories and left me stranded in India with no recollection of even my own name. It took me many years before I finally found a wizard in India who was conducting an experimental spell that was able to help restore all of my memories even though it took a great deal of time to do so," Randinee admitted, "with my memories fully restored I remembered who had done it to me and discovered that he had exploited my story, claiming it as his own. You may recognize him and the story he wrote Year with the Yeti."

Familiar enough with the book since she had had to buy it for her niece Susan, she exclaimed, "are you saying that Gilderoy Lockhart did this to you?"

"I am and I have proof that he did so," he confirmed, putting down sworn affidavits that appeared to mostly be in a language she couldn't understand, "all from the various villagers in Nepal who still remembered me and my search for my wife. The village was so remote however that they had no idea that Lockhart had written a book based on what I went through. I also have another one in English from the Nepalese minister."

Looking over that one as she could at least understand it, she found that he was evidently telling the truth, and said, "I do believe that we have enough evidence here already for us to take action against Lockhart. If what you said is true, and I do believe it is, he'll be going away for a very long time. You can also expect to receive a very large grievance claim from him."

"I thank you Madame Bones, I just want what he did not to happen to anymore of his unsuspecting victims," Randinee told her.

"Don't worry, I'll get right on it," she told him.

DUELDUELDE

Harry was rather bored as he sat absently listening to Lockhart blather on about what he supposedly did in one of his books, most of the time he had simply spent the time in his class passing messages to Gabrielle but which now included all of House Peeves, minus Fleur.

Laughing very quietly at the picture that Gabrielle had just made for him of Lockhart waking up to find he was bald, he was then surprised when Scrimgeour and Robards, two of the aurors he had met during last summer strode into the classroom.

"Gilderoy Lockhart, you'll need to come with us," Scrimgeour said grimly.

"For what reason? Did I win yet another Order of Merlin?" Lockhart asked hopefully.

"Unfortunately not," Scrimgeour answered, "you're under arrest for false claims you made in your book Year with the Yeti, impersonating another wizard and their illegal memory wiping."

"I do say this is completely ridiculous," Lockhart tried to argue, even though his face seemed to show otherwise, displaying a look of total guilt and fear.

"Come along quietly and we won't have to make things difficult," Scrimgeour cautioned.

Lockhart tried to make a run for it, but he was easily and quickly caught by one of Scrimgeour's spells, incapacitating him.

After Robards had tied him up and taken his wand, she levitated his body out to the doorway.

Before leaving, however, Scrimgeour said, "class is officially canceled for the day."

Watching all 3 of them go, Su turned towards them all and said, "I knew he wouldn't last long."

"Anyone up for a game of Exploding Snap?" suggested Gabrielle.

DUELDUELDE

A few months after his brief stint in prison, Lucius Malfoy began once again to plot revenge on Dumbledore, Madame Bones, and the Potter boy.

While the first two seemed rather well protected, and the Potter boy nearly so, he also recognized that there were still certain things he could do to get to the boy. After finally coming up with a plan, he mailed his son Draco what he needed to do.

One night Draco got his opportunity as he went and pulled Orion Belt aside after spotting him alone in the hallway.

"Orion, I was sorry to hear about your 6 year old little sister's illness," Draco told him, "what is the medi-wizard saying?"

"They say she only has about 6 months to live even with constant care," sighed Orion, "there's a cure but the potion she'll need will cost far more than we can afford. My father had to sell off most of his sword collection already just to be able to pay for her care and buy her as much time as we can."

"What if I were to have my father buy you the potion you'll need?" Draco said shrewdly.

"That would be wonderful," Orion said gratefully before then looking at him with suspicion, and going, "wait a minute, what's the catch?"

"What catch? Can't I do a good deed out of the goodness of my own heart?" Draco answered with mock charity.

Orion shot back, "there is no way you or your father would ever agree to spending that kind of money on someone unless you wanted something in return."

Draco finally just decided to come out with it, "Your sister will get the potion she needs, all you have to do in return is kill Harry Potter."

"You've got to be kidding me? You want me to kill someone?" Orion asked incredulously.

"It would be very simple, just a quick dagger throw into his heart or a slit of his throat and it's done," Draco replied.

"I won't commit murder," Orion refused.

"Then your sister will die," Draco countered simply, knowing full well he had the advantage.

Orion seemed to stew over this before finally saying, "you have to swear whether I get caught or not that you'll get my sister the potion if I do this."

"Absolutely, us Malfoys are men of our word," Draco insisted.

After studying him to make sure he was really telling him the truth, Orion agreed.

"If you come back on your promise I guarantee it will be you whose throat I slit," he threatened.

Draco only grinned, it was an empty threat, he knew that. If Orion so much as laid a finger on him, his father would quickly have his entire family killed in revenge, he had not doubt about it.

Once while on a play date with Goyle when he was 5, Goyle had gotten into a fight with him over who got the last chocolate chip cookie. Goyle had ended up pushing him, causing him to scrape his knee. When his father found out, Malfoy had had Goyle's father beaten. Ever since then Goyle himself had always been sure to let him have whatever he wanted.

His father's reputation for brutality was such that no one messed with a Malfoy, and he was sure that Orion was aware of it. He'd chosen his would-be assassin carefully and with Orion's skills and so much on the line, he was confident he'd get the job done.

DUELDUELDE

Harry was forced to leave duel training early as he had accidentally dislocated his shoulder hitting the ground from one of Su's spells. Pansy had then volunteered to take him to the hospital wing so Madame Pomfrey could help put it back into place.

"It's a wonder you haven't been more seriously hurt after how much duel training you do," Pansy claimed as she walked alongside him, trying to have him concentrate on something other than his shoulder.

"Don't worry, I'll always have you and Madame Pomfrey to help fix us up," Harry replied half jokingly.

"This wasn't what I had in mind when I wanted to learn how to be a better healer," Pansy said, "at this rate I won't even need any job training by the time I graduate. I'll just tell them that I spent 7 years fixing you all up and St. Mungo's will hire me on the spot."

"Hah hah, very funny," Harry pretended to laugh. He knew she was only teasing but she still always worried when one of them got injured. Usually if the injury was minor enough she could just fix it herself, but if it was too serious she would have to go and get Madame Pomfrey. Evidently she didn't trust herself to reset a dislocated shoulder.

Then looking over at her he asked, "so are you really planning on becoming a healer then after Hogwarts?"

"I really don't know Harry," she replied honestly, "I haven't been able to make up my mind yet."

"If you really want to you should, but if you don't nobody will force you, least of all me," Harry claimed, "you're already really getting good at it however."

"Thanks," she answered, "I do like it and it has come in useful as you can certainly attest to. The only thing that might make me hesitate is that I'd like to become a mother someday and I'd like to be there for our kids."

"Our kids?" Harry asked.

"Come on Harry its not like it should be a foreign idea that one day I and the other girls will end up having your children," Pansy told him.

While having kids was something he definitely wanted to do, he realized that Pansy had evidently put a lot more thought into it than his vague idea of wanting them in the distant future.

"I've always known that I was going to be a father one day, it just still seems so far away," Harry replied.

"The day will come sooner than you think," Pansy said, "besides you'll have 5 different wives, and each of them are going to want at least 1 kid, probably more. We've already all discussed how many kids we want to have."

"How many did each of them say they want to end up having?" Harry asked.

"Why don't you tell me how many you want to have first?" she asked.

He seemed to think about it for a second before saying, "well I've always wanted a big family, I know that much so I suppose if each of you had like 2 each that would give me like 10 kids already. That already seems like a lot but if you want to have more that would be fine too. From what I gather from Amelia I should have plenty of money to raise a family with."

"We were thinking along the same lines," Pansy replied sounding relieved, "and that's why I asked you first. Often wizards from wealthy or powerful families will try not to have too many children as they feel it produces too many heirs and thus weakens the house and its standing. If I had ended up marrying Draco for example and my first child had been a son, I would have been forbidden from having more, not that I would want to have any more children by that peacock."

"I've noticed that it seems that most wizarding families don't have too many kids," Harry commented, "and wondered why that was."

"It's for numerous reasons," Pansy explained, "such as the one I just told you. As for other wizards half-bloods and muggleborns tend to worry about diluting their magical genes any further and don't want to risk producing too many squib offspring or they end up having many of their children be squibs and then they of course don't get to go to Hogwarts. In addition, wizards and witches just don't seem to like having that many children, we never have which is why our population has always stayed so low."

"I suppose that it could be something to worry about," Harry told her referring to the worry about children becoming squibs, "but I'm sure that I would love our children whether they were magical or not."

"Its really a stupid idealism but its been ground into witches and wizards heads for centuries, we tend to want our children to be magical and be born into the best of circumstances, it isn't really just a pureblood supremacy thing, just a preference thing not to have too many children and instead focus on 1 or two magical children," Pansy replied, "having a really large family like the Weasleys who have 7 children is almost unheard of, but then again they are both purebloods and they are supposedly rather poor so they wouldn't be too worried about status or money."

"Well, like I said, I'd be happy with however many you girls decide you want," he informed her.

"All right," Pansy replied, "then Su wanted 2, Susan and Fleur wanted 3, and Gabrielle wanted 4," Pansy told him, although that may change after going through a pregnancy or two."

"What about you?" he asked.

She blushed and said, "like I said, that's why I'm worried about having time for my kids while being a healer, I'd want at least 7."

"Seven?" He asked incredulously.

"Would it not be all right with you?" Pansy asked, looking disappointed.

"No, its not that at all," he replied trying to reassure her, "if you want to have that many go ahead, I'll support you however I can."

She looked much more pleased and gave him a long kiss on the lips.

"Thanks Harry," she said.

While he was grateful for the kiss, he was reminded that he still had a dislocated shoulder, wincing at the contact.

"Can we please hurry up to the hospital wing?" he asked.

Asking his apology, they started hurrying faster but only made it another hundred feet when Harry was unexpectedly grabbed as he passed by one of the broom closets.

He tried to break free but he still had a dislocated shoulder and whoever had grabbed him was much stronger and bigger than him.

As he looked and managed to see who it was he realized that it was Orion, the 7th year Slytherin he had dueled during Lockhart's dueling club.

Orion quickly pulled him around and laid a knife against his throat.

"Orion, what are you doing?" Pansy demanded as she found out for herself what was going on.

"Don't come any closer!" Orion shouted at her.

Pansy stayed where she was and said looking scared, "Orion you don't have to do this."

"You're wrong, I do have to, I've got to kill him or my sister dies," Orion informed her.

"How will killing Harry save your sister?" Pansy demanded.

"She's sick and Draco offered to buy her the medicine she needs, if I don't do this she'll die," Orion claimed.

"How much does the medicine cost?" Pansy asked.

"One hundred thousand galleons," admitted Orion, "no way me or my family can afford that kind of money."

"What if I were to promise that you'll get the medicine if you agree to let Harry go?" suggested Pansy.

Harry could feel the knife blade so close to his throat now that it was actually starting to slightly bleed.

"How do I know you'll renege on your promise as soon as I let him go?" Orion asked.

Pansy reached around her neck and pulled off the diamond necklace he had given her for Christmas.

"This should pay for at least the down payment on it," she said as she handed it to him, "besides I'm not in the business of letting little girls die."

Orion seemed to be studying her, making sure she was telling the truth before he finally said, "I believe you."

The knife dropped from Harry's throat and he gratefully was allowed to get back up and go over to Pansy who immediately hugged him tight.

"Let's go get the money together and save your sister," Pansy told Orion.

"I can't," Orion confessed.

"Why not?" Pansy asked.

"The Malfoys will know that I went back on our deal, they might find a way to hurt my family if they know I'm still around and can testify against them," Orion said.

"We can find protection for them and you," Pansy insisted, "we know the head of magical law enforcement, she can help us."

"She can't do anything against Lucius Malfoy," Orion stated, "he's too powerful, there is only one way out of this."

Orion then drew the same knife and pressed it against his own throat.

"Wait Orion don't!" yelled Pansy.

"Save my sister," Orion said as he then slashed open his own throat, piercing deeply into it and pulling it halfway around his entire throat from below ear to ear.

"Go get Madame Pomfrey," Pansy yelled at Harry as she ran over to try and save him.

He rushed down over to the hospital wing and tried to find Madame Pomfrey. She was currently busy with another patient but he didn't have time to wait.

"Madame Pomfrey!" Harry yelled breathlessly, "someone has been hurt bad, we need you right now!"

She didn't bother to ask questions, quickly telling her patient to wait, a first year boy with a currently green hand and dashed off after him.

By the time they got back however Orion and Pansy who was desperately trying to keep him alive were covered in blood as Orion then closed his eyes.

"Don't die on me," Pansy yelled even as Madame Pomfrey came around to try and save him.

She tried to revive him but finally she shook her head.

"Is he really?" Pansy asked fearfully.

"I'm afraid so," she confirmed.

Pansy went to try and give Harry a hug only to find that he still had his shoulder to worry about.

"Let me fix that for you," Madame Pomfrey told him as she waved her wand and his shoulder was set back into place.

Immediately Pansy went back to hugging him and crying into his shoulder.

"I could have saved him," Pansy insisted.

"You couldn't have been expected to save him, the magic required would have been well beyond anything a 2nd year could do," Madame Pomfrey gently told her, "the cut went deep and all the way around the front and sides of his neck, he had only minutes left. He definitely knew what he was doing and how to cause a quick death. It would have been a challenge even for me had I been there to keep him alive."

AN: Yes this is entirely possible, I did my research on this as I do on just about everything in this story.

Harry continued to keep his arms around Pansy and comfort her, still obviously distraught at the loss of Orion. He doubted that she had known him all that well but it still was quite evident that she still blamed herself for his death. He nearly blamed himself for the incident, if he had only gotten there in time... No the two people responsible for his death, other than Orion himself were Lucius and Draco Malfoy. While they likely would get away with this terrible tragedy as their one witness was now dead, and had no other evidence, he promised himself that someway, somehow he'd make sure they paid for their crimes.

DUELDUELDE

A few days later found Pansy sitting alone on her bed, still thinking about the death of Orion. She knew in her heart that there was nothing that she could have done but she still felt terrible about the whole ordeal and after thinking about it she pushed her anger and responsibility for the crime from herself to Draco and his father. They were the ones responsible even though indirectly. Orion must have felt that the only way to keep his family safe from them was to kill himself. While she hated how he had done so, she also recognized that that was exactly what Lucius Malfoy would have done.

There was a reason why he had gotten away with his crimes for so many years, and he had a well worn reputation for silencing anyone who threatened him. She couldn't imagine a worse piece of filth, and the fact that Draco had apparently aided his father in the scheme only made him equal with his father in her eyes. She was once again grateful that she had somehow escaped having to be his wife, but it only reminded her all the more that he and his father were still out there and she was willing to bet they would try again to kill Harry one way or another. She swore that she would do everything in her power to make sure that Harry stayed safe from them and they ended up where they belonged: in prison, although having them die in various slow and painful ways might suffice as well.

She was shaken from her reverie and thoughts of punishing Draco and his father by Susan coming into the room.

"Hey," she said quietly.

"Hey," Pansy answered.

"I thought I'd check to see how you were doing," Susan replied.

"I'm fine, how's Harry?" Pansy asked.

"He's fine," Susan claimed, "my aunt is still with him."

After the attack Madame Bones had decided to take time off work and spend the last few days of school making sure they were all okay and that Harry was protected. The attack had left them all in shock on just how close they had come to losing him, with no idea if the Malfoy's might try again.

"I just can't believe there is nothing we can do to really stop them except wait for them to try again," Pansy said angrily, "is there no justice in this world?"

"I'm angry too, we're all angry," Susan replied, "but my aunt already checked, there is nothing we can really do unless we have some hard evidence on them other than what Orion told us, and evidently the testimony of a now dead attempted murderer to you isn't going to hold up very well in court . She's still working on it, but I know she's been trying to nail them for something for years and hasn't succeeded yet."

"I wish the law system at least wasn't so corrupt so that the likes of Lucius Malfoy could manipulate it so much," Pansy announced bitterly.

"My aunt has always worked hard on that too, it was evidently far worse when she first started as the head of the DMLE," Susan claimed, "it's the same reason why I want to enter politics someday."

"I'm sure you'll do a fantastic job," Pansy said supportively.

"Thanks," Susan answered gratefully, "and we'll get them, one way or another."

DUELDUELDE

Amelia went up to the now getting entirely too familiar staircase to Dumbledore's office and entered, having left Harry with Flitwick and the other girls while they trained for the next duel tournament that summer and figured they would be all right for at least several hours.

Plopping down the documents she had gathered over the past few days, she chose to address Dumbledore and ignore his proffered lemon drop question and get right to why she was there:

"Well I've been gathering information over security breaches in the school for the past few days and I have to say I'm not impressed."

"I do believe that our security is more than satisfactory," Dumbledore claimed.

"Do I really need to bring up the various attacks on students by a basilisk, the attack on Harry, or the many other things that happened this year? What about the troll or Quirrell last year?" Amelia demanded.

"Those were all regrettable and unavoidable accidents," Dumbledore answered.

"What about the entire acromantula colony near the school that you failed to notify the ministry of or the fact that you opted to keep the sorcerer's stone inside the school knowing full well someone was already planning to break in and steal it?" Amelia asked, "I'm sensing a pattern here and it's not good."

"I assure you I have everything under control," Dumbledore insisted, "nothing will happen on my watch."

Dumbledore was seriously getting on her nerves today with his stupid, thinking he knew what was best for everyone attitude.

"What reassurances can you give me that you will be improving things in any way?" she asked, "first of all I've learned that you plan on hiring a werewolf to fill the vacant Defense against the dark arts job. While I know Lupin reasonably well and I like him personally, I have to express some concern over the fact that he will be in such close proximity to children."

"We managed to keep Lupin from biting anyone else while he was a student here, and with the new Wolfsbane Potion that Snape has graciously agreed to make for him every month, I believe that it will be perfectly safe to have him here," Dumbledore answered smartly, "as for any other security changes I plan to make I am of course deeply concerned with the students at Hogwarts' safety, although I don't feel the need to disclose them."

"Then you won't mind if I send someone else to do a further evaluation of the safety of the school nor if I decide to install an auror or two into the school as a permanent deterrent to any further wrongdoing?" Amelia suggested.

"I don't believe that will be necessary," Dumbledore claimed, "I can handle any new protection spells and everything else myself."

She wanted to scream at him, continuing to insist that he had everything under to control, the man was a complete idiot when people found fault with anything he did, but this was ridiculous.

"Forgive me but your previous actions haven't warranted a lot of confidence in you," Amelia admitted.

"I'm perfectly capable of running my own school, and I don't need you or anyone else to tell me how to do it," Dumbledore insisted fiercely, "if you really have any problems with how I run things why don't you take it up with the school board?"

"You know perfectly well that the school board is controlled largely by Lucius Malfoy and since he's responsible for at least the recent attack on Harry of course he isn't going to endorse greater security measures," Amelia remarked.

Dumbledore actually had the audacity to grin at that and say, "well that's politics for you."

Doddering old fool! What was his problem? Not allowing greater security measures that were perfectly reasonable. She could have simply blamed it on pride, not being able to accept that he could ever be wrong as if he always knew what was for the greater good but she somehow suspected there was more to that. Dumbledore was hiding even more than she had realized if he was being this cagey and unwilling to cooperate. Just how she was going to find out what it was all about was a different story however.

"I could always withdraw support for that new bill concerning muggleborn rights," Amelia answered, forced to play the politics card as a method of persuading him. So far this had always served as a way to coerce Dumbledore as he had always feared her withdrawal of support.

Evidently Dumbledore had decided two could play at that game however.

Dumbledore gave another grin, "actually I don't think you will, you want that bill passed just as much as I do. I found myself worrying about you withdrawing support from me in the wizengamot, but I'm finally in a position where you need me just as much as I need you. Lucius Malfoy has been spreading his influence and gaining ground, and the only way we have a hope of stopping him is if we hold strong together. So unless you want him to take over, I would recommend that you not accuse me or try to interfere in my own business from now on."

Dumbledore had just laid down his cards. The fact that he was no longer bowing to many of her wishes did not bode well, if he was now choosing to try and pit Lucius Malfoy against her, it meant that not only was Lucius gaining in influence despite their best efforts, but Dumbledore was actually taking advantage of it against her.

She realized that Dumbledore had figured out that as long as he kept Lucius' in check, she would always be forced to rely on him if she wanted to stop him. It had always been 2 major powers with her and Dumbledore stopping Lucius and his group, but now Dumbledore wanted to make it 3 again, with her in the weakest position and forced to now acquiesce to some of his demands.

"Now then, I think that I am the one who should be asking you about safety," Dumbledore reminded her, "after all I am still Harry's magical guardian and if say I or perhaps someone qualified in the ministry I know not biased towards you were to inspect your home and find that your care was lacking..."

"How dare you!" She angrily yelled, "I can't believe that you would even suggest that I've been an unfit caretaker for Harry, and you know quite well it isn't true! If anything you should be held responsible for him being put with the Dursleys in the first place."

"What would matter is what I and the representative at the ministry would think," Dumbledore answered, "you'll find that I have already been absolved of any and all wrongdoing in the matter of Harry being put with his muggle relatives. More so I allowed Harry to be placed into what I thought would be a safe and stable home, but perhaps I might want to reevaluate that. Indeed a Dolores Umbridge, currently Senior Undersecretary to the minister has already inquired whether Harry might be better off somewhere else. I'm sure she could find something wrong with you or your home."

"That toad!" Amelia exclaimed, "you would seriously use that beast on me.

"I don't want to but if I have to..." Dumbledore said, "I'm personally tired of how you keep trying to coerce me to do things, and I think its about time you knew your place. Back off Amelia, I tried to be friendly to you and give you a few things that you wanted, but now it looks like I must force you to do what you are supposed to do. It is only for you and the rest of magical Britain's own good."

Gone was the at least somewhat bearable Dumbledore that she had settled in a sometimes shaky but mutually beneficial relationship with, Dumbledore was bringing out the claws, and she knew him well enough to know that if he ever went on the attack, he felt confident enough that he could get away with it.

She realized now that it had been a huge mistake on her part not to gain full guardianship status of Harry but at the time she had been too concerned if she could actually win it and just wanted Harry away from the Dursleys as soon as possible. Now Dumbledore was taking full advantage.

"Yet as long as you don't try and get yourself involved again in my own affairs we can simply honor the status quo and forget anything every happened," Dumbledore claimed, "but try to bother me again with anything and I'll make sure you regret it."

She looked at him, sitting there confidently making threats and she realized that he was no longer the Dumbledore she had always hoped he had become, this was the Dumbledore she had tried to tell herself no longer existed. Now that she knew the truth, however, she would have to treat him as the conniving monster he was rumored to be.

"I suppose they were right about you," she countered.

"Who was right about what?" Dumbledore asked, slightly taken aback.

"I know about the truth between you and Grindelwald," she claimed, "I chose to disregard it as merely a rumor but now I'm not so sure. You certainly seem to be acting like the Dumbledore I'd heard of in it."

This caught him completely off guard, causing her to grin. While he had initially caught her off guard with his sudden new treatment of her, he would not do so again, and while she couldn't get him for anything illegal, she still had picked up plenty of info he would not want known to the general public.

"I'm afraid I don't know what you are talking about," Dumbledore answered, sounding visibly shaken nonetheless, "if you want to spread baseless, unbelievable rumors about me be my guest."

It appeared she needed to try for something stronger if she was to threaten him just as much as she had threatened her.

"I also know about what happened to your sister Ariana," she said, "would you like that known about Dumby?"

Now she got the reaction she was looking for.

"You would dare say such things about her in my office?" he angrily asked.

Evidently his sister was still a very sore subject. She pressed in, sensing weakness.

"The only reason I chose not to mention it before was out of what little respect I still had for you," she claimed, "yet now that you want to go and threaten my family, being Harry, you've lost that respect, come after my family and your own family's name will be dragged through the mud. Don't mess with me Dumbledore. YOU will regret it."

While the exchange hadn't gone perfectly at first, she felt that she had definitely left her mark, and with Dumbledore now showing his true colors and just how low he was willing to go, she could now adjust to that, from now on he would be regarded as a threat and an enemy, and she knew exactly how to handle her enemies. Dumbledore was going down.

DUELDUELDE

As Harry and the girls sat at their house table, they noticed that nobody seemed to care anymore about just who won the house cup as it fluctuated so much from day to day because of Peeves, who seemed to get a kick out of taking away or giving out points from all of the houses for random reasons. After giving Malfoy an atomic wedgie for example, he took 200 points from Slytherin for having a too feminine and high pitched sounding voice.

After bursting one of the tubes from giving out too many points however for the 2nd time, Pansy finally managed to convince him to keep it within more reasonable amounts, although it was quite common to see it fluctuate a great deal.

Peeves had originally been planning to keep theirs the highest but in order to be more fair, she insisted on him taking points away from them as well.

Dumbledore of course opted to put on a brave face and go for the cop out solution as to who had really won.

"Congratulations everybody you are all winners!" He announced.

No one was amused other than Crabbe who seemed to think it was a joke and laughed for the next 5 minutes, and for the first time he felt like Crabbe might actually be right about something as in that case Dumbledore was a real joke.

Everyone listened absently to his everyone's a winner at Hogwarts speech before he finally finished and went and sat down.

Yet when the food was supposed to arrive instead nothing but candy arrived, great huge piles of it, fruit candy, every flavor beans, and basically anything a kid could want.

In contrast the teacher's table was full of nothing but raw brussel sprouts and lima beans.

"This has to be the best feast ever," Susan declared happily, quickly helping herself to some chocolate bars.

"I wonder who did all this," Fleur asked as she scooped up some candy.

"I'll give you one guess," Harry announced as he looked at the huge chocolate statue of Peeves.

"Guess who," Peeves said appearing right before all of them, "I hope you like the candy."

"Is this your end of year big prank you kept teasing us about?" Pansy asked him.

"Not quite," Peeves said.

Suddenly there was a loud commotion as they all looked over as numerous things began to happen at once. First of all the walls all turned purple, and confetti fell down from the ceiling. Then a rather crude rendition of Happy Birthday began to play from somewhere.

Meanwhile most of the teachers had already been turned into unicorns, and were now eating the brussel sprouts laid out for them. Dumbledore as a unicorn had a long white beard easily recognizable from the others.

"House Peeves wins the house cup!" Peeves announced.

Author's Note: Yeah Dumbledore is a scumbag. I want to kill him too, but for the sake of the plot, not yet. We can't just simply kill off everyone we don't like in a story. If for example Harry really did kill Voldemort at the beginning of Book 1 and he had no horcruxes, unless there was a new villain for Harry to fight it wouldn't make for as an engaging story. Also if anyone tries to say that Madame Bones is a fool for letting Dumbledore take advantage of her like that, she honestly wasn't expecting Dumbledore to lash out at her like that, and was caught unawares. She once again realizes she made a mistake and is bent on fixing it.

While this chapter wasn't the best for our heroes, it was done to illustrate just how far Dumbledore, Lucius Malfoy, and even Draco are now willing to go for greater power. Lucius Malfoy knows that Harry is really the only thing standing in his way of taking control of the Wizengamot, Draco knows that he needs to get Harry out of the way in order to gain back the respect of both his father and people who he feels should be following him, and Dumbledore knows that if he is going to truly accomplish his plans for the greater good, which are of course still not really explained so far, he needs to keep Amelia in check. The way in which he chose to do so, however, will of course drive a permanent wedge between them, forcing Amelia to act against him.

P.S. For anyone wanting to see Dumbledore get killed please check out my list of ways that Draco could have killed Dumbledore in book 6 if he had been a bit more imaginative.


	21. The Great Escape

Author's Note: I decided to include a discussion in this chapter that may be slightly more mature than previous chapters, but I decided to include it anyway, as I felt that it was necessary in order to further explain Harry's growing physical attraction as well as respect for the girls in a not so graphic, respectful and mature way that I believe would be appropriate and important for a teen to have if done correctly. It's also meant to clear up some obvious misconceptions I've noticed either in fanfiction or in real life. Thanks.

Chapter 21

The Great Escape

Upon arriving back at the Bones House after having left Hogwarts for the summer, Harry was immediately set upon by Dobby, who he had heard from Amelia was now working for her.

"Might Dobby take Master Harry's things to his room?" Dobby asked respectfully.

"Sure, but I'm not your master Dobby." Harry tried to say.

"Dobby works for Mistress Bones and Master Harry is under the custody of Mistress Bones so that makes Master Harry also Dobby's Master." Dobby claimed as he used his magic to make his stuff disappear, presumably to the room that Amelia had left for him.

"Thank you Dobby." Madame Bones answered, having just appeared with Susan, the 2nd person she had just apparated after Harry.

"See you in another second." She claimed as she went back for Pansy.

"Wow it certainly feels good to be home." Susan announced as she gazed around.

"It certainly does," Harry replied, before saying quickly, "I mean to be in your home too, I didn't mean to presume that..."

"Nonsense, I'm flattered that you think of my home as your home now," Susan replied, "and the way I see it, why shouldn't you?"

He nodded and waited for the other girls to get there.

After Amelia finally finished transporting them all, they went to go check out their rooms, which should already have their stuff in it as Dobby had already moved it all.

They found that Amelia had evidently told him where to put each of their stuff.

"I just figured I'd mix things up a little, and decide who goes with who but if you want something else you are free to change it," Amelia explained.

Nobody had any objections so the room assignments she had made were as follows: Susan was sharing her room with Pansy, Su with Gabrielle, and Fleur and Harry had their own rooms.

After getting settled and after Susan had visited her pet flying horse Pegasus and her house elf Susan decided to ask, "Aunty, I was wondering if we could maybe go shopping today, I think I need a bigger bra."

"Okay I think we can do that." Amelia replied as she looked over at the girl, "It appears you've definitely inherited the Bones' family genes..."

"Some girls have all the luck." Pansy complained, although quietly enough for no one to hear but him. While Pansy already had a decently sized chest herself for her age, Susan had definitely grown a lot in that department during the last year, something he had definitely noticed.

"Well we might as well all go shopping then," Amelia concluded, "in case anyone needs anything."

This time they took the Floo network, popping out of the fireplace of Madame Malkins, the clothing store. While the girls all looked at bras and underwear, Harry decided to slip out in case they did not want him there or be labeled a pervert.

This took him to the broom store across the street where he quickly spotted the newest broom out, the Firebolt. It was a gleaming piece of workmanship that while he was not actually a Quidditch player and only flew occasionally on Susan's broom, it was still a sight to behold.

As he viewed its specs listed on a small stand next to it, he realized that Susan would no doubt be salivating over this broom once she saw it, as indeed two 10 year olds were currently doing staring at it through the store window beside him.

"Harry?" A woman's voice asked.

He turned and found that it was Tonks, now sporting long platinum blonde hair and wearing tight black Muggle clothes.

"Tonks," Harry replied happily, "fancy meeting you here."

"I was just doing a bit of shopping." She answered before looking over at the new Firebolt next to him, "Blimey, that would be an amazing broom."

"Did you ever play?" He inquired.

"Yep, in my 3rd through 6th years," she replied, "I was a Beater on the Hufflepuff team until my last game 6th year. I ended up getting hit by a Bludger hard enough that I suffered a concussion and ended up having amnesia. Couldn't remember anything I'd done for the last 10 years. It all returned a few weeks later but after that I decided it would be better to give up playing."

"Sorry to hear that." He commented.

"It's all right, truth be told I still don't remember the incident itself." Tonks said, grinning, "So what brings you here anyway?"

"Doing some shopping with the girls but they are errr... buying special clothing right now." Harry said blushing.

Tonks laughed, "Who would have thought? A boy with 5 young women all to himself and he's still afraid he might see their knickers."

He clamped up at that, still too embarrassed by just what Tonks had said.

"So you want to go with me and help pick out a broom?" Tonks offered, seeing his discomfort.

"Sure." He answered as they both walked inside.

The shopkeeper spoke up before she could say anything, "Don't tell me, you want to know how much the Firebolt costs?"

"No actually I was looking to buy another broom." Tonks replied.

"Sorry its just it seems everyone keeps coming up and asking me about it." The shopkeeper replied, "I've finally just started telling people if they have to ask, they probably can't afford it."

"While a Firebolt would be cool to have," Tonks admitted, "I'm looking for something around the middle price wise, not too expensive but still something that I can rely on to last me awhile and can take a bit of battering. I'm an Auror you see and I sometimes need it to travel when apparating isn't a possibility."

"Right, I do believe that a Cleansweep 7 would be a good possibility in that case." The shopkeeper suggested, "Since you're an Auror I'd be willing to give you a discount, I know it'll be put to good use."

After he and Tonks had talked it over with the shopkeeper, Tonks finally decided to buy the Cleansweep 7 and they headed out with her new broom just as the girls were all coming out of Madame Malkins.

"Hello Tonks." Su replied, recognizing her immediately.

Tonks started to smile but then stiffened a bit when she saw Amelia who was bringing up the rear, evidently still nervous around her boss.

"Hello Madame Bones." Tonks said, sticking out her hand woodenly.

"Good afternoon Tonks," Amelia replied warmly, seeming to be laughing on the inside due to how nervous Tonks sounded, "I'm glad to see that you've apparently been keeping Harry busy."

"Did you just get a new broom?" Susan asked excitedly, looking at what she could see of Tonks' new broom currently mostly covered up. Tonks graciously pulled her broom out of its long narrow bag and allowed Susan to look it over.

"If you'd like to, you can join us as we finish shopping." Amelia invited Tonks.

"I'd like that Madame Bones." Tonks answered respectfully.

After going shopping, they finished up with having some ice cream at Florean Fortesque's Ice Cream Parlor while Tonks regaled them all with a story about how she had caught a thief that had somehow gotten stuck in a tub of butterbeer.

Of course this only led to Amelia telling one of her own back when she was an Auror about how she had caught 3 thieves that had gotten drunk stealing firewhiskey.

"It wasn't hard for me to catch them, they had all passed out by the time we got there." She said, finishing the story.

Afterwards Tonks looked at her watch and declared, "Well its been fun but I've got to get going, I'm scheduled to be on duty in an hour."

"Bye Tonks." Susan said, followed by the rest of them as Tonks got up and left.

"I like her," Su admitted once she was out of earshot, "she's cool for an Auror."

"You saying Aurors aren't usually cool?" Amelia asked in a mock stern tone.

"I didn't mean it like that, its just most of the Aurors I know are really strict and no fun, like Scrimgeour or Moody." Su claimed.

"It's a tough job, and it tends to wear on you after while." Amelia replied, speaking from experience having started out as an Auror herself.

"True, but I still don't see why they can't all be like either you or Tonks." Su asked.

"Well I certainly like Tonks too, she's young and has a lot to learn, but we're lucky to have her, we simply don't have enough good Aurors." Amelia claimed.

After finishing up their ice cream they Flooed back to the Bones manor.

Upon arriving, they all went to go put their stuff away and Harry waited for a minute before going to ask Susan if he could have a ride on her broomstick, being a bit eager to after going broom shopping with Tonks earlier.

He found Susan alone, Pansy evidently having already gotten her stuff put away and gone somewhere else.

"Come on in Harry." She told him looking up after he had knocked on her open door.

Entering he found her currently still putting away her stuff into her chest of drawers.

He was about to ask about riding her broom when he noticed that one of the new bras that she had just bought had fallen on the floor.

"Um, one of your um...things fell on the ground." He said nervously, pointing.

"Could you pick it up for me please?" Susan asked as she was now organizing her clothes.

Bending down he gently picked it up with two fingers, careful not to touch it anymore than he had to.

When she saw him hold it out to her and saw his face she laughed.

"What's so funny?" He asked.

"You, its a bra Harry not a dungbomb set to explode." She answered jokingly.

"I just didn't want you to feel like I was doing anything wrong." He said, heavily blushing now.

"I seriously don't have a problem with you touching one of my bras." She replied, "After all you're going to see me practically naked in one all the time when we're married."

As the thought of just what Susan would look like naked entered his mind, if it were possible he blushed even redder.

Not able to resist laughing again, she said, "Your face is as red as a tomato!"

"Sorry," He mumbled, hoping that she had not guessed what had gone through his mind, "I can't help it."

She finally decided to take pity on him however and said, "Alright Harry sit down on my bed and we'll talk about this. I don't want you to have to feel embarrassed about this kind of stuff."

He nodded slowly, sitting down on her bed but still feeling out of place.

"I've already had the talk and gone through all of this last summer." He tried to tell her.

"I think we'd better make it a slight continuation of that." She suggested as she held up her bra again, "This, of course, is a bra. They come in different sizes depending on how big your breasts are. They go from AA cup to... well I don't really know how big they can get, but I know they go down the alphabet.

As you go through puberty they get bigger but each girl is different on just how big they end up getting and when they stop growing."

"You've probably noticed that I'm bigger than all of the other girls in our year so I am already a small D cup. I would say that based on how big the women in my family normally end up being I still have some growing to do though."

At that moment, Pansy came back in, and when she saw them she asked. "Um, did I disturb something?"

"Not at all I was just telling Harry about bra sizes." Susan admitted.

"Oh," Pansy grinned, "and how is that going?"

"He's still kind of nervous." Susan replied, "I'm trying to get him comfortable enough to ask questions."

"Well I can see why he might have problems, little Miss Busty." Pansy answered.

"All right so I'm already big, but not that big," Susan claimed, "Not yet at least, Fleur is already a double-D, and my aunt is an F-cup."

Harry's mind was reeling as he had had no idea that they could get that big, according to Seamus Finnigan back when he was in Gryffindor, a double-D was the biggest bra size a girl could have. Evidently he was wrong, although he really shouldn't have trusted a 13 year old boy to really know anything anyway.

"Yeah, but you probably aren't done growing yet, and are the biggest in our year, everyone is already jealous of you." Pansy replied.

"I'm older than most of them, and there is a lot more to a girl than her chest size," Susan countered, "and you've got nothing to scoff at at your age, a B-cup is actually bigger than both Gabrielle and Su."

"Gabrielle I think is catching up to me." Pansy told her, "All Veela I've heard tend to be rather well endowed and she's only just started going through puberty. I would honestly be shocked if Su got any higher than a B-cup, even fully grown, so that's not a very fair comparison."

Susan turned to Harry and decided to explain. "The thing is Harry, girls tend to worry a lot about their changing bodies as they go through puberty, I'm guessing even more so than guys, breast development being one of them, if they are too big, too small, if they're unnatural, etc. It can be pretty embarrassing asking about them and voicing your concerns however, which is why I decided I'd try and make you feel more comfortable when we bring stuff like that up, we're close enough by now that you shouldn't have to feel like you are doing something wrong being present while we do. It's okay to ask questions or make comments, we aren't going to think negatively of you if you do."

"Well I have to admit I've been holding back whenever Harry has been around which is most of the time." Pansy admitted before addressing Harry, "I really don't mind if he knows, neither would any of the girls I'm sure, this is kind of what you get for only hanging around girls, especially girls that you are going to one day marry."

Through all of this, he had chosen to remain silent, not trusting himself to speak before deciding to ask Susan, gesturing over at her chest, "Are they heavy?"

"Not really," she admitted, "a witch's bra usually has a spell on it to drastically reduce the weight of them to where you can barely feel them and make sure they are properly supported. If I were to go without a bra for a long time maybe."

"Couldn't you also just use magic to make them smaller or bigger?" He asked.

Pansy grinned and said, "I'd imagine it would be every wizard's fantasy to make them, in their opinion, the perfect size whenever they wanted but unfortunately it isn't as simple as that. Otherwise I'm sure you would have a lot more bigger chested witches. Body modification potions are extremely expensive and you would need a very skilled potion maker to make them. I doubt even Slughorn or Snape could do it. Still, if a witch really wants it, and has the money, they can. For example Draco's mother, Narcissa, I know hers aren't natural."

"There has been a lot of rumors spread over the years that the Bones' family simply buy their large chests but we just grow them naturally." Susan explained, "Most men don't really seem to know anything though according to my aunt. If you're a double-D or higher, they just naturally assume they have to be fake."

He briefly told Susan about Seamus' thoughts on breast size, causing her to laugh.

"Like I said, they don't really know anything." She replied, "Sizes beyond that really do exist and they are a lot more common than you would realize, nor do you have to be fat to have them. They can be a pretty large cup size if they are not that big of a girl and have them not be absolutely gigantic, I'd put myself in that category actually."

"Do you like having them?" He asked.

"I don't mind if they get bigger as long as you don't," she replied, and smiled as she glanced down at him, "and it looks like you really don't."

"Sorry..." He tried to say.

"Like I've said before Harry, I really don't mind." She replied.

"I want you to know if they ever reach a size that bother you I'd be willing to pay for the potion to have them reduced." He announced.

"Thanks Harry but I should be just fine." She told him, "magical bras really work wonders."

"You do realize that if you are going to go offering to buy expensive potions body modification potions you might end up getting some offers." Pansy replied.

"I wouldn't have a problem doing that, but only if you really wanted them." Harry told her, "I think you are all beautiful just the way you are and I wouldn't ever pressure you into anything."

"Thanks Harry, just the way to answer it." Pansy responded approvingly, "We'll see in a few years after going through puberty how I feel and if you care to admit you want any changes."

"I'm perfectly happy with the way you all are now, just simply letting nature take its course." He answered.

Pansy asked then, possibly trying to gauge if this was true or not, "Well what physical attribute do you like most in a girl?"

As he thought about it, he knew that there was really no safe answer as it might suggest which girl he liked most. If he said their chest, he would be favoring either Susan or Fleur, if he said their butt it would be either Fleur or Pansy, if he said hair it would be Su. Truth be told he had learned to like each of the girls no matter what, they were all beautiful only in different ways.

"He's too smart to answer that question," Susan informed Pansy after waiting awhile.

"You're right." Harry replied with a small grin, silently thanking Susan for helping him out with the right answer.

"Girls usually like to be told how beautiful they are," Susan explained to him, "especially if they are a bit insecure, which Pansy will have to admit she is. I'd suggest you just tell her what you like about her."

Grateful for Susan's help, Harry decided that it would be all right for him to mention what he really thought of her.

"Well Pansy has the most beautiful green eyes I've ever seen, and she has a much nicer body than she realizes, I love everything about it, her hair, her face, her figure." Harry claimed as he looked at Pansy, "While she may not have the type of beauty most guys would notice yet, she only gets more attractive every day in my eyes and with time, I expect her to leave many guys drooling at the sight of her."

Pansy and Susan seemed impressed by his appraisal of her, and Susan nodded approvingly.

"Thanks Harry." Pansy answered, seeming to be touched as she kissed him tenderly on the lips.

"What about me Harry?" Susan asked gently.

"What guys probably notice first about Susan is of course her chest," He began, "but she really has the whole package, a body that girls would kill for already yet she never tries to rub it any of the other girls' faces. She isn't the type to try and show it off, but somehow that makes her all the more attractive to me. What I think gets me the most about Susan is when she smiles and her entire face lights up."

This earned a kiss from her as well, and he finally started to feel more comfortable about discussing such things with them.

It was then that he realized that they just wanted to be reassured about just how he felt about them physically, and for him to feel comfortable around them as they continued to go through puberty and share their experiences.

He supposed that it was only right as they all got closer to their eventual wedding that they have such a level of closeness and honesty, without taking it any further sexually until they were older and more responsible.

Finally Susan left to go find the other girls and involve them on the discussion, where they all decided on just how far they would be willing to go in that regard. It was quickly determined that as a rule they would all wait at least a few years to go beyond kissing, but to be much more open regarding physical changes, especially with Harry.

To this he was suddenly treated to a barrage of shaving various body parts, menstrual cycles and other stuff he would have never guessed knowing about girls and was more than a little bit freaked out at first by.

Still it was all rather informative and would hopefully make him not feel so awkward when they did bring stuff like that up.

DUELDUELDUEL

Amelia had only just had the opportunity to look through her first file at work when Scrimgeour unceremoniously entered her office, something most unlike him. The fact that he would do so without waiting for her permission alone was cause for alarm, and what he said first immediately proved to be correct. "Sirius Black has escaped from Azkaban!" He said breathlessly.

"What? That's impossible!" She exclaimed in complete shock.

"The human prison guards only just realized it this morning when they were doing roll call." Scrimgeour announced.

"When was the last time anyone saw him?" She demanded.

"From what I gather yesterday morning at roll call." Scrimgeour said, wincing as he said so.

"So you're saying he could have been missing for 24 hours and no one noticed it until now?" She asked angrily.

"Like I've said before, those Azkaban guards are incompetent." Scrimgeour claimed, "They just sit around, thinking the Dementors will do all the work and keep the prisoners at bay."

"Unfortunately we haven't been able to get anyone better for the wages they currently get," Amelia replied, "Fudge always seemed to think they weren't even necessary as long as we had the Dementors. I could never get him to increase the prison budget for it back when the DMLE was still over the prison system. He's had his nephew in charge of it for quite awhile now, and his nephew is even worse, laziest piece of rubbish ever, probably figured he could have a job without really having to work and let the prison run itself."

"Fudge is an idiot," Agreed Scrimgeour, "and he'll likely try to pin it all on you for failing to recapture him, mark my words."

"Like Merlin he won't!" Amelia insisted, "If he does I'd be happy to post the many letters and memos I sent to him requesting better prison guards and for better training of them and also point out just how long the prison guards even realized he escaped. Right now though let's focus on catching Black, he could be anywhere by now."

"He probably didn't even survive, most likely drowned or died of hypothermia." Scrimgeour replied reassuringly, and not without logic. "He'd have to swim for miles to get to the nearest mainland."

"We will not assume anything of the sort." She reprimanded him, "We underestimated Black during the war with Voldemort, we will not do so again. Unless we actually find a body, we will act under the assumption that he is still at large. Do I make myself clear?"

Under her fierce gaze, Scrimgeour backed up a step and quickly replied, "Yes Madame Bones."

"I'll be heading to Azkaban personally to find out what I can from there. In the meantime I want you to muster every able Auror, every able body, to go and search for him, I don't care if you have to beg for people from other Departments, I want him found."

Scrimgeour, knowing she meant business, quickly hurried to do what she requested.

She then immediately created a Portkey.

Portkeys normally had to be approved to be used into or out of Azkaban and required certain security measures known to only herself and two other people as a carefully guarded secret.

In emergencies, however, such as this one, she would likely be creating quite a few of them for the Aurors once she got back from Azkaban.

When she got there, she immediately found Moody, already currently supervising the search.

"What can you tell me about the situation?" She asked without hesitation.

"Not a whole lot." Moody replied gruffly, "The prison guard louts are still in a panic, I've had them flying overland looking for anything but it's likely he already managed to reach land and get out of the anti-apparition wards we have set up. He could literally be anywhere by now."

"We've just got to expand the search." She said, knowing that it was entirely possible Moody was right, "Do we have any idea just where he might be headed?"

"I actually have a pretty good idea and you aren't going to like it." Moody admitted grimly, "I had him interrogated a few months ago. An item with his family crest on it turned up in a raid, it turned out to be a cursed item and injured the Auror handling it."

"Gleeson?" she asked, recognizing who he was referring to, Gleeson had only just been cleared to work again a week ago, he'd been in a coma for several months after the incident.

After Moody had confirmed her suspicion, he continued.

"I figured I'd try and see if I could get any info from him about it. He denied knowing anything about that, just kept on insisting that Harry Potter wasn't safe and kept asking if he was protected. I figured that he had just gone mad and chose to ignore him, but with him having now broken out, it appears he may have been trying to find out the security around the boy."

"One of the guards heard him muttering in his sleep, "he's at Hogwarts". Probably meaning Harry. I think it is a very real possibility that he broke out of prison with the intention of finding and killing him. In his deluded mind he might very well believe that the boy was responsible for his incarceration and want revenge."

This caused her to back up a step. While she would love to dismiss this as simply Moody's paranoia, she knew that she couldn't, the evidence he had already provided to her was already enough for her to have cause to fear. While Black did not currently know his whereabouts at her house, when Harry returned to Hogwarts Black was bound to come after him.

What with Dumbledore's recent security failures and refusal to beef up security, there was every reason to believe he just might succeed. She could never allow that to happen, and if it wasn't Black it would be Lucius Malfoy. The beginnings of a plan began to form in her mind.

Author's Note: I had spent a great deal of time coming up with this elaborate plan for Sirius to have been able to escape from prison and had it all typed up in how he did it but in reading it over, I realized that it would have taken either a ridiculous amount of luck or sheer and incomplete incompetence by the human guards for really any plan to have worked. Rowling explains how he got out of his cell but what then? He would have needed to get food as apparently he was ridiculously thin and weak, especially if he was to have the energy to escape. He would also have needed to get some sort of flotation device as evidently Azkaban was in the middle of the north sea far from other land, and he would have drowned before reaching land in his weak condition.

That would only work if what he needed was unguarded by human guards and wasn't locked up.

The guards would likely have had a spell on their wands preventing someone else from using theirs or something that would have alerted the other guards and he wouldn't have gotten far with them hot on his heels if they knew he was out of his cell. He would have needed to escape without their detection.

Assuming he found a supply room of some sort, with food and a flotation device, he would then need a way out, the easiest being that he found a dirt floor and as a dog he was able to dig his way out. The only other ways would be either he tricked someone into letting him out of the prison somehow, or the guards left a window without any bars or warning spells on it. All fairly unlikely.

If it was during the summer time and he had his thick dog fur or something else to help keep him warm, he could probably manage not to die from hypothermia swimming in the water on his way to the next nearest land.

Lastly the guards would have had to not check on the prisoners very regularly, which I can see them avoiding, not wanting to be around the Dementors too often.

If they only checked once a day, Sirius would hopefully have enough time to dig underneath the prison, get out, get into the water and start swimming for the nearest land, get to land and then hide somewhere to rest, probably still in his dog form in order to avoid being caught.


	22. The Melding of the Minds

Chapter 22

The Melding of the Minds

It was not until a few days later that Amelia was finally forced to enact the first stages of her plan, having already exhausted her efforts to persuade Dumbledore or the board of governors to enact greater security at Hogwarts in case Black showed up.

She had even appealed to Fudge, but he had only insisted that it wasn't in the budget as they needed the extra finances right now to prepare for their hosting of the Quidditch World Cup meant to take place in Britain next summer.

Fudge, she was finding, was getting to be more and more under the control of Lucius Malfoy, a sad fall for a once capable and independent leader. She even highly suspected him of taking bribes from the suspected Death Eater, but she still lacked proof.

At least he had gotten nailed for the Sirius Black fiasco, the media was having a field day with Fudge's incompetence and she had actually come out the hero in the situation after she presented copies of her numerous requests to improve the prison system.

With Sirius Black now on the loose she realized that she could no longer hide the truth from Harry any longer, she had finally told him and the girls about him being Harry's godfather and the reason why he was in Azkaban. They were all understandably upset, and she knew that some of them were now halfway tempted to help in the effort to catch him.

She had managed to persuade them not to, as well as Su's suggestion of even more training in case he showed up. Since they were already doing as much as they possibly could in duel training anyway, she thought that this was not necessary.

Sirius Black however was only the latest in a long line of people that were proving to be difficult of late.

Her still somewhat recent encounter with Dumbledore made her realize that simply playing fair and working hard at it were no longer going to cut it. She had always thought of herself as the personification of a good Hufflepuff but if she was to succeed she'd need to act as a Slytherin, and if necessary do something illegal to combat the corrupt system she was now fighting against.

She would need to do something unexpected and sneaky if she was to handle both Malfoy and Dumbledore, and if necessary the Minister as well.

It all became apparent that it all centered around Hogwarts.

Dumbledore was quite obviously hiding something at Hogwarts and he must have thought that more security spells installed by Aurors or just Aurors posted as guards might put whatever it was in jeopardy. It was evidently pretty important to him to take such a risk as he must have known that if Harry were to be killed so too would a lot of his strength in the Wizengamot, still maintaining those seats for Harry until he came of age.

It would be hard finding out just what he was up to, but she felt that if simply having more security spells put up around Hogwarts or posting an Auror at the school was an issue for Dumbledore in being discovered it might be easier than she had first thought.

Lucius Malfoy was still trying to kill Harry so he could gain control of the Wizengamot, he had a huge amount of motivation to try. While she felt that Harry was about as safe as he could be in her home, it was already proven that at Hogwarts he was still vulnerable. Lucius Malfoy of course was too smart to allow any dangerous evidence to be linked back to him, he always handled everything through someone else who was quickly Obliviated of any knowledge after completing the task. He'd so far been untouchable, but she believed that he might now have a weak point in his son as they regularly corresponded and was now evidently being instructed in how to run the family business. His letters to his son however were always coded in a way that her magical codebreakers had not been able to break, and Draco always burned them after receiving them.

However, if she could manage to trick the boy into giving out information on his father, it would go a long way. If she had to however use legilimency or some other way to force it out of him, even though it was illegal, she was now prepared to do it. If she had to choose between breaking the law and protecting Harry and taking Lucius down, she would be choosing the latter.

Still she would need to be careful as Draco was bound to have been taught a great deal in protecting his mind and information about his father, and if he were to find out about her attempts to steal information from him Lucius would then most likely make it impossible for her to get any more from his son.

Then there was Harry, who was now being hunted by two different people, Malfoy and Black, the latter of which he did not yet know about other than that he was a criminal. She would have to be very careful about how to break the news to him and the girls, they were still pretty upset about the whole Orion incident.

She realized that in order to prove and convict either Dumbledore or Malfoy of any wrongdoing and also make sure that Harry was given greater protection she would have to have somebody go in as a spy and likely one who wouldn't be missed in a secret, off the record assignment.

The problem lay in that fact that Dumbledore would likely already be suspicious to any new teachers entering the school after the loss of his last two DADA teachers and he could detect Glamours and other spells meant to hide one's appearance. Nor could she have them constantly using Polyjuice, it would simply be too risky trying to smuggle that much of it into the school, it would likely take at least months for the spy to get any information and failing to take it even once would lead to discovery.(1)

She could try and recruit someone out of the country but she didn't know anyone outside of Britain that she could trust, and once again, Dumbledore would likely suspect any new teachers too much. This left a student to do it, and while she definitely trusted Harry and the girls, and would no doubt be willing, she couldn't risk doing that, especially as they couldn't be expected to know how to get past the various protection spells that Dumbledore had on whatever secrets he was keeping and would most likely get caught.

She finally realized that only one person could do it: be able to pose as a student without using Glamours, Polyjuice, or other identifiable characteristic changes and also had the training and experience necessary to do it: Tonks.

The fact that she already was well respected and liked by Harry and the girls would only make things easier.

Having considered Tonks' best cover story, she recognized that in order to be close enough to Harry to provide him constant protection without raising too much suspicion from Dumbledore as a new student, or someone suddenly very close to Harry she would need to join his harem posing as a girl his same age. With any luck, she would also be sorted into his House.

That left a major problem as she couldn't just lie to him and the girls and simply make up some reason that some random girl was now betrothed to him. She knew that she would need to tell them, but in order to do that she would need to make sure they were taught Occlumency, she wouldn't put it past the likes of Dumbledore reading their minds if he ever got suspicious.

Reading someone else's mind without their permission was illegal, but Dumbledore had gotten a loophole passed decades before her time stating that it was permissible for the Headmaster of the school to do so for the good of his students. They would need to know Occlumency before she filled them all in on the plan.

Fortunately a part of the pre-Auror training program was devoted to teaching this and she would be requesting that they focus a great deal on it in addition to what she taught them at home. Having them all suddenly know Occlumency then would not seem so out of place should he deign to check why they did. She would get them started on it immediately.

DUELDUELDUEL

It seemed to Harry and the girls that they would be learning a whole new meaning of the word openness when Amelia informed them about pre-Auror training coming up later in the summer.

"I've decided that a great deal of the training should focus on something all Aurors must learn. You'll be a bit young for it but I think it would be beneficial for all of you to learn." Amelia began, "I'd like to teach each of you Occlumency and Legilimency."

"Isn't that mind reading and protecting against mind reading?" Su asked.

"Yes, how did you know?" Amelia asked.

"My aunt taught me how to do Occlumency while I was living in China." Su answered, "We just have a different name for it." She added as an afterthought.

"That's good," Amelia answered, "that might help us. Anyone else have any training in it?"

"I do," Fleur replied, "my father taught me somewhat. He was planning to teach Gabrielle as well when she got older."

"Then if you don't mind I think I'll test both you and Su to see how proficient you are at it." Amelia answered, "For those of you who don't know, letting someone practice Occlumency or Legilimency on you can be kind of invasive, so you always want it to be with someone that you can trust. So if any of you feel uncomfortable with that..."

They all paused to digest that, before Pansy said, "It's alright, I don't have any secrets to hide from any of you, although there are a few things during my childhood that may not be very fun to view."

"I think the best way is for us to practice on each other." Susan agreed, "We've all got things we've done in our lives that we aren't proud of and might be discovered, we just have to realize that we all make mistakes and not judge anyone else."

"Agreed," Su said, "I'm an open book to any of you."

"Besides I think Harry already knows our more...intimate secrets already." Gabrielle commented, referring to the discussion they had just had recently.

With everyone agreeing, Amelia reluctantly agreed to do it that way, although she did express some misgivings that they might end up regretting it later.

"If there is a problem we each have to promise to talk it out calmly and rationally." Susan insisted.

"That we will." Gabrielle promised.

Before they began, Amelia tested both Fleur and Su.

After testing Fleur she declared that the older Veela's mental shields were good enough to defend against a gentle mind probe but wouldn't hold up for very long against anyone really pushing at them.

Su's were good enough to withstand her push at her, but after pressing for 20 seconds, they eventually collapsed. Still, it was better than nothing, which was where the rest of them were at.

Giving them instructions on how to clear their minds and build up their shields, they worked on them for awhile before she went and tested each of them, careful not to go too deeply, only just barely break through their still rather weak shields.

The next day, she instructed them in Legilimency and had them break off into pairs with one of them using Legilimency and the other trying to defend with their own mind shield.

As the weeks went by, they began to get more and more proficient at it, leading them to learn some rather interesting things about one another, as they tried to get better at focusing enough to find a specific memory they had been tasked with finding.

At times it was tough, such as when Susan broke into tears, having briefly relived the memory of Harry being verbally assaulted by his aunt and uncle after coming home from school having to explain that he had somehow turned his teacher's wig blue.

"I just can't believe even those animals would do that!" Susan insisted with a face full of tears.

"At least it's over now." Harry replied soothingly as he hugged her and gently ran his hands through her long red hair.

"Abuse is something that Susan just isn't used to, but for you is unfortunately all too familiar." Su wisely said, "I'd imagine that if my aunt had not been the one to raise me and instead been raised by my father it likely would have happened to me as well. Maybe not outright physical abuse, but mental abuse is very likely. Abuse is something that people end up coping with and for you when you were a child you might have viewed it as ordinary behavior. Susan has never actually seen that before."

"I hope the Dursleys rot and die in prison." Susan declared.

"The best thing we can do is try not to even think about them." Harry said, "Which, I know, is hard since we keep finding each other's memories. If you'd like I won't have you try and practice Legilimency on me."

"No, I want to know." Susan answered bravely, "I want to know more about you, and while it might be painful to view some of your old memories, I've found that I've enjoyed being able to view most of them. I really feel like I understand and feel closer to you now."

"I feel the exact same way." Fleur said, "I'd never really been close to anyone other than Gabrielle until I met all of you, and now I feel like I am closer than ever. It's a great feeling to have."

"It certainly is," Pansy admitted, "while I was always slightly jealous of you Fleur, having practiced on you has definitely changed my opinion, I can't believe some of the stuff you had to go through as a Veela."

"I still can't believe you ended up the way you did with the parents that you had, you quite evidently had rather difficult parents." Fleur replied.

"You don't know the half of it..." Pansy admitted. Normally she was rather guarded and gave out very little information on that subject, but they were slowly learning more and more about her parents and childhood.

Harry didn't think she was really abused as he had, but more neglected and had rather difficult expectations. He'd suggested that he meet her parents, but she had managed to talk him out of it until he was more "prepared" as she told him that they would be rather hard to deal with.

"I wish we had better control over the memories that we end up finding." Gabrielle complained, "I keep trying to find memories of you all in first year back when I wasn't there."

"That should come with time." Su answered confidently, "We're still not that great at it yet so we still don't really have too much control."

"My aunt told me that people who get really good at it can actually start implanting their own thoughts to other people, and then have them reply back, I think it would be wicked cool if we could do that." Susan said.

"We could talk in class and the teacher would have no idea that we were doing it." Gabrielle said enthusiastically.

"We'll have to work awfully hard at it though before we can get to that level." Harry reminded them.

"It would still so be worth it." Pansy admitted, "Besides, the way Madame Bones has had us working so hard at it, I wouldn't be surprised if we end up getting to that level if we keep at it."

"Let's give it another go then." Susan suggested, now feeling much better and eager to continue.

Each of them got back together with their partners for the day.

DUELDUELDUEL

A few days later, Harry was sitting in his room, reading a book on dueling when he heard a knock at his door. "Come in." He called.

The door opened revealing Fleur.

"Can I talk to you Harry?" She asked him.

"Sure," He replied, putting his book down and giving her his undivided attention. "what's up?"

"It's about the memories that I viewed of yours yesterdau." She confided.

"I'm sorry." He tried to say, feeling guilty in case she was still suffering from them.

"Don't be," She told him, "if anything they gave me a lot more perspective and respect for you."

"I've been finding my respect for all of you growing as well." He admitted.

"For me I think it has more meaning." She replied, "Seeing you abused by your relatives like that, it reminds me that for all intents and purposes, you were really their slave. That's all you had really ever known and you could have so easily turned around and done the exact same things your relatives did to me and Gabrielle."

"Why would I? I'd never make anyone have to go through what the Dursleys put me through." Said earnestly, shocked that she would even suggest that he might.

"You could have gotten angry, or you could have used us to help take it out on them." She reminded him, "Yet instead I feel like you're the complete opposite. I've never felt like a slave around you, instead I've always felt respected, liked, loved even."

Bringing love into the equation was a new thing for him, he liked Fleur, he liked all the girls, but he was still too young to be able to claim he really was in love with them.

"I'd say I'm still too young to really..." He replied, trailing off.

"Loving someone and being in love with someone are two very different things." Fleur answered wisely, "I would say that each of the other girls love you by now, they just probably aren't totally in love with you. It doesn't mean you've done anything wrong, you've done better than they could probably ever dream of, they just aren't old enough to really comprehend what truly being in love is."

"You know what my childhood was like growing up with the Dursleys," Harry reminded her, "there was no love for them and certainly no love from me. I don't really even know what love is, much less being in love."

"I think you do." Fleur pointed out, "You risked yourself saving each of us from a terrible fate without even knowing any of us. Then you took the time to get to know each of us, and every day I see you do things that show love to them and they show love back. I've never seen any boy as young as you enjoy such closeness as you do with us, and I would honestly be surprised if we aren't already falling in love with you."

"What about you?" he asked.

"I'm older than the rest of them and maybe that gives me a better understanding of it, or maybe it doesn't?" She claimed, unsure. "But right now I know that I love you. How deep that love goes and if I am truly in love I'm not sure, but I'd like to find out."

"How would you like to do that?" he asked her.

"I know that the rest of the girls wanted to wait a few years before they went any further with you, but since I am older than them, I feel more confident in deciding to offer more to you now." She concluded.

He gulped. "Um, you really don't have to do that Fleur if you don't want to." He stammered.

"I do want to though." She claimed, "We could take it as far as you like, all the way if you wanted to."

This was certainly an interesting development, here was Fleur offering herself to him, and he could not deny that he was tempted, Fleur was widely considered by just about every boy in school to be the most beautiful girl at Hogwarts. They had only held back because she had worked so hard at making sure it was well known she was already taken by him. The fact that she really was his and his alone was something he had never really taken advantage of out of respect for her, but now here she was offering herself to him.

As he gazed upon her gorgeous body he knew he could have her right now, and she would let him, in fact he wouldn't be surprised if she let him do it as much as he wanted, whenever he wanted. He would have that opportunity eventually, why not now?

Still, he wasn't sure if he himself was ready for it just yet, but maybe the only real way to know was to actually do it?

Then he thought of the other girls, they would likely be upset, but they would probably grin and bear it and say they were happy for them, even though they would probably be jealous and it would pressure them into doing the same thing earlier than they might have really wanted.

He would not, _could_ not, do that to them.

"I'm sorry but I can't Fleur." He finally replied. "It isn't because I don't like you, or love you even, it's just it wouldn't be fair to the other girls." He briefly explained his reasoning.

She nodded, seeming to understand. "I have to respect you for that, maybe it was presumptuous of me."

"I'm still flattered that you would make such an offer," He told her, "and one day if you still want to we can, just not right now."

"Can I still kiss you now, Harry?" Fleur asked him.

He nodded and she leaned in and kissed him. It was only a kiss, something any other guy he knew would have viewed as a consolation prize after the offer he had just received and turned down, but interestingly enough, he didn't feel that way, he knew that he had made the right decision.

Immediately after Fleur left, Pansy came in.

"I didn't want to bother you in case you were having a private conversation, so I waited." She explained.

His mind still reeling from his conversation with Fleur, he blurted out, "Fleur offered to... you know...with me."

"She did!?" Pansy exclaimed in surprise.

"Yes," He answered, "but I turned her down."

If anything Pansy looked even more shocked.

"You actually turned the most beautiful girl at school down?" She asked in complete amazement.

"I realized that I just wasn't ready. That _we_, aren't ready." He answered, "I'm still much too young, and besides, I realized it just wouldn't be fair to the rest of you."

"How would it not be fair?" She asked.

"I knew that that would put pressure on the rest of you." He replied.

She paused for a second to think about that and then said, "Well I'll be honest I suppose it would, I'm definitely not ready myself, but if you really wanted me to you know I would do anything for you, Harry."

"That's what I was afraid of and that is one reason why I'm going to wait." He explained.

"Well I'm still impressed." Pansy answered, "Most guys wouldn't have had such resolve if Fleur was around them offering something like that. In fact _I _would be tempted to do Fleur if she offered."

This caused him to laugh. "That would certainly be fun to watch." He admitted.

She hit him lightly on the arm. "I'm sure you'd like to see that wouldn't you?" He grinned back and she replied, "Well I make absolutely no promises on that."

They sat in silence for a bit, with him trying to avoid thinking about the image of Fleur and Pansy together. While he certainly would have no problem if one of the girls got together with another, as it would be rather hot, he also wouldn't push them into anything.

"So what did you come in here to talk to me about originally anyway?" He asked, changing the topic of conversation.

"I was just wondering if you wanted to take me flying on Pegasus," she asked.

"Sure." He answered, happily getting up with her.

DUELDUELDUEL

Occlumency and Legilimency lessons continued on, each of them working hard at mastering it.

By the time it came time for pre-Auror training, Amelia considered them to be much more proficient in both areas, each able to now create a strong enough shield to defend against a basic to moderately strong mental attack, and could break through one as well.

At the ministry for pre-Auror training, which now included all of the girls, they continued to expand upon that, although Harry had to admit his misgivings about having most of the Aurors test them in Occlumency. Harry simply didn't trust them to be in his head. Scrimgeour in particular, he could imagine he would try and take advantage of the situation. That was when she informed them that Tonks would be doing that for them, which made them all feel much more comfortable.

Tonks however was more than happy to test them, and during one particularly strong attempt on the last day of it, with both him and Su assaulting her shields, they managed to break through them and a stream of memories greeted him for about half a minute before Tonks was able to force them back out again.

"What were you impersonating that Holyhead Harpy player for?" Su asked her.

"I was trying to get attention from a guy." Tonks admitted, blushing a bit, "He turned out to be a complete jerk though."

"Tonks could I speak with you for a second in my office?" Amelia asked her, having just come down to presumably check their progress.

"Of course, Madame." Tonks replied as she hurried over to her.

Upon finally entering their progress, Amelia once again applied various spells to make sure they couldn't be overheard.

"I have a very special assignment for you," Amelia informed her.

"What is it?" Tonks asked curiously.

"I would have preferred that it was a more experienced Auror but you are the only one I've got that can really do it." Amelia admitted.

"I"m guessing that you mean my Metamorphagus abilities." Tonks surmised.

"Not only that, but also your already close relationship with Harry and the girls that he is betrothed to.

I could have chosen someone else much stronger and better at teaching it, but I chose you because they all already felt comfortable around you, and I wanted that to develop even further before they found out my plan."

"I'm sorry, you have me at a loss as to what plan." Tonks replied.

"I am concerned over the state of Hogwarts and it's security." Amelia answered her, "Particularly over the safety of Harry. You may have already heard about the attempts on his life, both last summer and late in the school year. While this would be enough for me to want to do something about that anyway, Dumbledore has refused to allow me to take any action. He evidently does not want anyone questioning his authority at Hogwarts, even a few small security measures that I suggested which I find to be very suspicious."

"When I tried to bring it up with the school governors they refused to hear my plea, as Lucius Malfoy convinced them that no extra security was needed. I am confident, although I have no real proof, that Lucius orchestrated at least one of the attacks and will probably try again, which is why he rejected the extra security."

"How can I really do anything though if the school board of governors and Dumbledore are refusing to allow any changes?" Tonks asked.

That was when Amelia outlined her plan to her, about going undercover as a student to collect evidence against Dumbledore and Lucius Malfoy and in the process protect Harry.

While Tonks still seemed a bit nervous as it would be her first long term undercover mission, she agreed to do it. The assignment would entail her traveling secretly to Atlantis, where the duel tournament was to be held and presumably where she ended up joining the harem, posing as an Atlantean.

"I'll be telling the children about it shortly." She informed the currently electric blue haired girl. "There might be some resistance from them but I think they'll agree eventually. It is imperative that they agree to go along with it."

XXX

(1), Both Barty Crouch Jr. and Dumbledore were complete idiots in the 4th book, Crouch was super lucky he didn't get caught and Dumbledore, failing to learn from his last 3 DADA teachers he hired completely failed to notice until the end of the year.


	23. Atlantis

Chapter 23

Atlantis

It didn't taken as long as he thought it would to get to Atlantis, the destination of the world dueling tournament that year. They had ended up taking what seemed to be a Portkey to him, an ordinary object with magic set to take them somewhere else.

However Amelia had explained that it wasn't really that simple in this case as Portkeys had much more limited range, Atlantis however was different, being one of the most magically powerful places on earth, and a place where wizards had dwelt for millenia.

It was the oldest magical city on the planet.

Atlantis was something of an anomaly as it had a huge magical signature and strength. So large in fact that if using the right spell, other objects and people would naturally be attracted to it and be sent directly to its center. Of course the spell was a closely guarded secret by the Atlanteans and they had been lucky for Amelia to have gotten permission to receive an object to take them there.

Now he and the rest of them stood in a large room, the walls totally invisible and open to viewing. He could even see various fish swimming just outside of it.

"How do the walls manage to hold up like that?" He asked, "Glass?"

"No, its a very powerful shield spell, held up by the magic of Atlantis itself." Amelia answered, "You can go touch it if you'd like, it isn't dangerous.

As most of them went to go do just that, he noticed that both Fleur and Gabrielle seemed to be looking rather scared, currently standing close together in the center of the room.

"It really is perfectly safe." Amelia reassured them.

"It's not that, I just don't like being underwater." Gabrielle confessed, still looking worried.

"Veela are creatures of fire and we have a great dislike of being underwater." Fleur explained.

"Are we going to have to be underwater all the time?" Gabrielle asked nervously.

"No, this is just where we ended up getting sent." Amelia explained, "Most of the city is indeed underwater but where the tournament will be held is above ground."

"Can we get going to there then?" Gabrielle begged.

"Of course." Amelia replied.

As they walked out of the room through a door, Harry put his arm around Gabrielle's other side to help make her feel more comfortable.

In the next room, however, they discovered a group of what appeared to be guards currently looking over a couple of African wizards.

The interesting thing was the guards all had totally green skin, possibly a result of having lived underwater for so long or from a special Atlantean diet.

"What are they doing?" asked Susan.

"They're just checking to make sure they are safe from any potentially harmful diseases or haven't brought contraband into the city." Amelia admitted, "It shouldn't take too long."

After the African wizards got checked out and moved on, they stepped forward.

One of them scanned Amelia first along with her bags and declared, "All right, you're good."

He was next, followed by Susan, Su, and Pansy, each of them getting clearance.

Yet when they came to Fleur, the man said, "we can't allow your slave to proceed."

"Why is that?" Amelia demanded.

"Atlantis has a very strict policy against slaves entering the city above, fortunately we do have a holding cell for slaves should you wish to keep them there." The man informed them.

Harry quickly realized that if Fleur was not allowed, so would Gabrielle, and looking at them, they certainly were already feeling terrible about remaining underwater.

He decided that he couldn't do that to them.

"Perhaps we had better have them go back." Harry suggested, "They shouldn't have to be here."

"Not until I've spoken with someone in charge about this." Amelia replied before addressing the Atlantean guard, "Who is in charge here?"

"I'm sorry Madame but I don't make the rules." One of the guards said, "I just have to enforce them. If you would like to speak with a city official I could do that."

"I would appreciate it." Amelia told him, "If you can get Poulti, that would be best, I've worked with him before."

The guard left, while Harry stood still trying to comfort both Gabrielle and Fleur who still looked terrified and no doubt unhappy about being unable to compete in the tournament. Hopefully they would be able to work something out however.

Finally the city official known as Poulti arrived.

Like the other Atlanteans, his skin was totally green, only he had large webbed hands and small gills, suggesting he could be capable of breathing normally in just air as well.

"What seems to be the problem Madame Bones?" Poulti asked.

"I have two girls wishing to compete in the tournament but have been banned from doing so." Amelia told him.

"I am told they are actually slaves are they not?" Poulti asked.

"Technically yes, but we've never actually viewed them as such." Amelia admitted.

"To Atlanteans we view slavery a bit differently." Poulti explained, "The city was built upon the work of slaves and despite some people's efforts to do away with it, myself included, it is simply too important an institution. Also, what with the slave population being as large as it is, we've had to take certain security measures to prevent a slave revolt, including not allowing slaves to enter the upper city."

"Surely there must be something that we can do." Amelia asked.

"I suppose you have a few options, but I'm not sure you'll like any of them." Poulti answered, "Option 1, you take your slaves back immediately. Option 2, you have them put into our slave quarters, or option 3, I suppose we could put inhibitor collars on each of them, which would prevent them from using magic or going anywhere besides your hotel room."

None of those options seemed very desirable.

"I'm sorry." Amelia tried to say gently to both Fleur and Gabrielle.

"It's okay, we know it isn't your fault." Gabrielle tried to say, but her depression slipped through the mask.

"So what do you want to do?" She asked them.

"I'd really like to be able to watch Harry compete." Fleur admitted.

"As well as Su." Gabrielle added before addressing Su, "At least now with me out of the competition you'll be able to compete."

With only one girl allowed for each age bracket from each country, Su and Gabrielle had been forced to duel it out to see who would be competing, to which Gabrielle had won.

"This wasn't how I wanted to be able to compete though." Su pointed out.

"If we could be allowed to watch them compete we could agree to just stay in the hotel room the rest of the time." suggested Fleur.

"I believe that could be arranged." Poulti said thoughtfully, "Although I should probably warn you that they might... be treated rather poorly around any Atlanteans."

"I'd still like to do that if it means I get to at least watch." Gabrielle blurted out.

"Very well," Poulti said, "I can have the guards put collars on you then."

"I'm afraid I'm not authorized to do that." Said the same Atlantean guard they spoke with earlier.

"I'm a city council member and I am authorized to do it." Poulti claimed, getting into the man's face.

Finally the guard nodded and gave orders to his men.

One of the other guards came forward with 2 metal collars that he placed over each of their heads, and after having them around their necks they got magically smaller until they just barely fit around their necks.

The guard then waved his wand, pointing at first Fleur's then Gabrielle's collar and pronounced it done.

"I and one of the guards will need to escort the slaves to your holding cell." Poulti announced.

They followed Poulti past the guards and then continued into the city itself, first the underwater portion and then to the above ground part.

As Harry looked around, he noticed that all the Atlanteans had the same green skin, and many had the tell-tale signs of being slightly fish like, with webbed hands and gills.

"How did they get like that?" Su asked Poulti.

"Several reasons," Poulti explained, "the green skin is caused by living underwater for so long, as well as from eating underwater plants. The gills and webbed hands have come from interbreeding with mermaids. Unfortunately this carries a lot of racism, as all true mermaids are considered slaves by us. Relations between humans and mermaids over the years has created a race of part mermaid, part human species. The ones that are born with a tail or unable to breath air are treated the same as mermaids and forced to work as slaves, while those who can are usually just heavily prejudiced against and are treated as very low class citizens."

"It must be getting better though if someone like you was elected as a city official." Susan pointed out.

Poulti gave a grim smile, "I'm the first one of any mermaid descent to ever be elected as a city official, and that was only to get the International Confederation of Wizards somewhat off our backs so they could claim that we at least had some representation. It's mostly been an empty position so far, the other city council members pretty much ignore me. It's been made pretty clear I'm only there to make the ICW happy."

"You're still making a difference." Amelia answered, "You've already helped me a great deal with my special project and with Fleur and Gabrielle, we couldn't have done it without you."

By special project, Harry assumed that she meant Tonks, a project he was still concerned about, but he trusted Amelia enough to go along with it. It would certainly be interesting though, having to pretend that he had added yet another girl, although having done it five times before he supposed he at least knew how to act.

Poulti finally got them all the way to the hotel room and they entered, putting all of their things down.

"How is the collar?" Pansy asked Gabrielle gently.

"It stinks." She muttered, obviously annoyed, "I can feel it pressing around my neck every time I breath, not really constricting or painful, but still a constant reminder."

"At least we're above ground now." Fleur pointed out, "I hated being underwater."

"So did I." Gabrielle said, shuddering even as she said it, "I don't ever want to be underwater again."

"Poulti is nice for a part merman though." Fleur admitted, "Usually Veela and Merpeople don't get along. When I first saw him I guessed what he was and I thought we were seriously in trouble, a full Merperson finding a Veela in the water would most likely kill them."

"I think Poulti understands discrimination towards another race well enough." Amelia said reasonably, "He was instrumental in getting the papers necessary for Tonks to assume a new identity as an Atlantean."

"Where is Tonks anyway?" Su wondered.

"She should be bumping into us shortly." Amelia replied, "Our cover story is that Harry saved the life of a wealthy Atlantean and as a reward he offered his daughter in exchange."

Judging from what little he had already learned about Atlantis, Harry supposed it wouldn't be too much of a stretch for an Atlantean to so willingly give away his daughter like that. Evidently Atlanteans seemed to have a rather low opinion of human life.

"Come on let's go exploring!" Su suggested.

"Fleur and Gabrielle can't go anywhere though." Susan reminded the shorter girl.

"Oh...right." Su said dejectedly.

"Don't worry about us, go have a good time." Fleur recommended.

"Well if you're sure you'll be all right..." Su answered, obviously still concerned for them, but also wanting to go exploring.

"I think I'll just stay here." Pansy announced.

"I'd better come with you Su and make sure you are still squared away as a competitor with Gabrielle now out." Amelia said.

Deciding that he really needed to go as well, and make sure he was totally straightened out too, Harry accompanied them, leaving Pansy, Fleur, and Gabrielle behind.

When they got to registration, he was quickly cleared away, yet Su ended up taking a bit longer as Amelia had to remove Gabrielle and put in Su as the alternate.

While waiting a distance apart from them with Susan, a Chinese boy who looked to be about his age approached him.

"So you must be the great Harry Potter himself." The boy said sarcastically.

"I'm Harry Potter, but I wouldn't consider myself great." Harry answered.

"Good, because I wouldn't consider you great either." the boy answered with a sneer, "If you don't know who I am you must have had your head stuck in the sand."

As Harry looked at the boy, he realized that he did look familiar.

It finally clicked, this was Lao Tzu, the current world champion duelist in their age group, the duelist that he would have faced in the finals had he not forfeited in order to save Gabrielle and Fleur back when they were kidnapped.

"I know who you are." He replied simply.

"Good," Lao answered, "you caused a lot of controversy by forfeiting last year, nobody seems to know exactly why. I heard for example that you were simply too afraid to fight me and knew you couldn't win."

Harry wanted to roll his eyes at this development; yet another stupid bully. While they could not say the real reason for his forfeiting it didn't mean that he could just take that accusation. "You looked like you could use the win." He told the boy, adopting a mock expression of pity.

Lao's eyes narrowed. Harry felt that wasn't too huge of an insult but evidently it was to Lao.

"I don't need your pathetic pity!" Lao answered, "I've won every single duel tournament I've been in, world champion 2 years running, and come from a very long line of undefeated world champions, my father, uncle, grandfather, great-grandfather for the last 150 years have been champions.

Susan whistled, "Sounds like quite a legacy."

He was about to say something himself back to Lao, but then Amelia and Su came back. When Lao saw Su, he shifted targets, "I heard you weren't competing this year." He told her.

"You thought wrong Lao," Su replied scathingly, "I'll be coming for you." Evidently Su seemed to know Lao from the way she was looking at him.

"You can try, personally I'm rather tired of having no real competition." Lao claimed, "I was just talking to your boy-toy here to see if he might actually be worth my time or not."

"Harry could beat you with one hand tied behind his back." Su claimed.

"We'll just see about that won't we?" Lao answered, as he turned around and left, leaving a very angry looking Su.

"Judging from how you were acting, I'd say you and him have a history together." Susan commented to Su.

"Lao was also part of my aunt's fighting school." Su answered, "Him and his entire family were practically worshiped there for their fighting skills. Unfortunately while Lao likes to talk big, he can actually back it up. I was always forced to spar with him as the 2nd best for our age group, and I never, ever won no matter how hard I tried, and he continued to rub it in my face. I've been trying to beat him for as long as I can remember."

"Sounds like quite the rivalry." Amelia commented, "Well let's hope you beat him then this year."

"I hope so." Su said, her eyes glinting with cold malice.

"Well I'm going to get back to the hotel room, but you three are free to go check out the practice rooms or the dueling arena." Amelia announced.

After deciding to go check things out like Amelia had suggested, he couldn't help but notice the disparity between the full humans and the part Merpeople, as the humans were evidently quite wealthy and wearing fine clothes while the part humans worked as servants or performed other menial tasks.

"There is just so much injustice in the world..." Susan commented, noticing it for herself, "When does it ever end?"

"Unfortunately it should seem almost natural to view it by now." He said cynically.

"What have we seen so far?" Susan asked, "Forced marriages where children are treated as bargaining chips, child abuse, child endangerment, slavery and human trafficking, prostitution, corrupt governments, the list just goes on and on."

"The Magical World I would say is even worse off than the Muggle one." Su answered, "We've always been somewhat behind the times."

"I'm going to change all that, at least in Britain." Susan said vehemently, "I'll do whatever it takes to get things changed."

"You can count on us to help you." Harry said, resting a hand on her shoulder for support.

"Thanks Harry," Susan said, "it will be awhile, but I'm already trying to get a feel for politics from my aunt and hopefully I can really make a difference when I come of age."

"What happens when you come of age?" Su asked.

"I'll be taking over for my aunt in the Wizengamot as our family seats were actually inherited by my father and then passed to me. My Aunt Amelia has been handling them until I come of age and can do it myself."

Harry nodded, "Your Aunt told me that Dumbledore has been doing the same thing for me."

"It doesn't appear to have done us much good." Susan replied, referring to what they had heard Amelia say about Dumbledore and how he was trying to manipulate her.

"You better just grow up then and steal it back from him." Su said.

"We're hoping sooner than that if we can nail that fossil." Susan said.

Usually Susan was much nicer, except for when she felt very strongly about something, and injustice and threats on her family happened to be the two biggest things that set her off.

He was about to reply, when suddenly someone bumped into him.

"Hello Harry." The person said.

He immediately recognized the person as an Atlantean, with her green skin. She also appeared to be about his age, and had long blonde hair that went just below her butt.

"Do I know you?" He asked.

"What, you don't recognize me?" She asked, trying to look like she was upset but instead had a huge grin on her face.

"Tonks?" Su asked.

"The one and only!" She answered brightly, "Aren't you going to give me a kiss, oh husband of mine?"

This left him feeling a bit awkward, unsure what to do, as while he had been kissed by the girls many times, he had never kissed Tonks, especially when she looked like an Atlantean girl.

Fortunately Su answered for him, "None of us are actually married to Harry yet."

"In Atlantis we could get married right now if we wanted." Tonks revealed, "So how about it Harry?"

If anything he felt even more awkward until he suddenly realized Tonks was messing with him. Well two could play at that game.

"I quite agree, why wait?" He announced, "We'll have to hurry if we want time to consummate the marriage afterwards."

Such a comment left Susan sputtering and gasping, and Tonks to start laughing.

"You seem awfully eager Harry," Tonks replied with a grin, "but I suppose I can do that, provided you get me a ring and a dress first."

"Do you really have to tease like this?" Susan demanded.

"Alright, I'll let you and Harry off the hook." Tonks said, feigning disappointment, "Although we do need to sell the new couple thing. We should be okay here but we'll still want some practice."

"In what way?" He asked.

"You can start by giving me that kiss." She said.

Somewhat reluctantly, he quickly gave her a kiss on the cheek.

She grinned widely, "I meant more like this." Grabbing him she pulled him into a searing kiss on the lips.

"There, that wasn't so bad now was it Harry?" Tonks asked teasingly.

Susan rolled her eyes at that, "I doubt he's too upset."

"You want to go hang out with us Tonks?" Su asked.

"I think that would be a good idea," Tonks said, "but you need to start calling me Aqua."

"Did you pick the name?" Su asked.

"Yes, what's wrong with it?" Aqua or Tonks asked back.

"Well I suppose it's better than Nymphadora." Su quipped.

"Isn't that the truth..." The green girl grumbled.

"All right Aqua-Tonks, let's go." Su said as they headed over to check out the practice area.

When they got there, the duelists that had been training gradually began to notice them and started pointing as they whispered among themselves.

"What did I tell you girls?" Harry said, pulling Su and Susan together with both arms, "It looks like you're too attractive for your own good, look how much they keep staring at you."

"I think they're staring more at you." Aqua admitted, "Though I had no idea you were that famous."

"I think it's more because of what happened last year." Su said, "All everyone knows is that after your duel with Gabrielle, you just up and disappeared. Lao ended up winning by forfeit, which is probably one reason why he went after you earlier, he absolutely hates it when people refuse to fight him."

"Why would anyone not want to fight a pipsqueak kid?" Tonks asked.

"You would have had to have been there last year." Su relied, "I managed to catch a few of his matches, he's downright scary with how he duels."

"He's going to be the favorite to win." Harry remarked.

"Not the competitor's favorite though." Su said, "Every competitor here would love to see him lose. I doubt if he's ever lost against anyone that wasn't a relative. His grandfather is a national legend, having won more world tournaments than any other wizard ever and he's still competing. The rest of his family seem to be well on the way to catching up to him."

"You actually going to be brave enough to fight Lao this year?" A German wizard called out to them.

"Lao is going down this year, count on it!" Su called out loudly to him.

"Somebody had better beat him or I'm going to have a conniption." An Australian witch whined.

Harry wasn't really sure just what a conniption was, but it didn't sound good. "When will we be facing Lao?" He asked.

"Not until almost the finals, it will be awhile before then." Su replied.

He admired Su's confidence but that was still a long ways off.

"Well we'd better get you ready then." Susan said.

DUELDUELDUEL

Meanwhile back at the hotel room, Pansy, Gabrielle, and Fleur all sat together on the bed, playing a game of cards.

"This stinks..." Gabrielle remarked.

"It sure does," Fleur agreed with a small smile. "Pansy keeps winning."

"You know that wasn't what I meant." Gabrielle replied.

"I know," Fleur said, her smile dropping to a glum expression, "I wish that our father was here at least."

"Why couldn't he come again?" Pansy asked.

"Couldn't get the time off work." The oldest Delacour answered, "Now it looks like we'll just have to sit here bored most of the time."

"At least you'll get to watch all the duels take place." Pansy said, trying to cheer them both up a bit.

"I'd rather not risk being out too much in case we're recognized with slave collars on us." Fleur said, "I was nervous enough coming here with them on."

"We could put some Glamours on you?" Pansy suggested.

"Glamours don't work on Veela," Fleur answered, "otherwise I would have started using them a long time ago."

Pansy's face however brightened as she said, "We could have you use Harry's invisibility cloak!"

"Did he bring it with him?" Gabrielle asked.

"He sure did," Pansy replied happily, "I watched him pack it, probably wanted it just in case something like what happened last year happens again."

"I still hate that." Gabrielle said fiercely, "If that didn't happen we'd both still be able to compete."

Nobody said anything about that, all knowing just how much it stunk.

Fortunately Amelia came back then. "Is everyone all right?" She asked.

"Yep, just playing cards." Fleur said.

"You mind if I join in?" She asked them.

After agreeing, they allowed her to come in, which she quickly proved to be insanely good at, schooling all of them.

"So that's where Susan got her skills from." Pansy observed.

Amelia grinned, "I've taught her everything she knows, but not everything I know."

She happily put down a royal flush, to each of their annoyance.

DUELDUELDUEL

It had taken him weeks but he had finally managed to make it all the way back to his former home at 12 Grimmauld Place.

He would be safe here, no one knew where it was or even knew it existed, it was a closely guarded family secret. There were other Black homes and properties of course but this was the one that he should be safe in.

Even if the Ministry did know about it, they would never be able to get inside what with all the security spells on it. They could sit right outside his front door for years and never get in.

Stepping into the entryway he finally allowed himself to breath a sigh of relief, something he had not done in 12 long years ever since his incarceration.

The place was filthy and caked with dust, meaning their old family house elf Kreacher was either dead or at a different property. To this he was actually grateful as he had always hated that house elf.

Searching through the pantry to see if perhaps there might still be some edible food, he located some magically preserved potato chips and dug in, hungrily eating, most of his meals while being on the run having come out of garbage cans.

Just as he was starting to relax a bit, a voice said from behind him, "Hello Sirius."

Turning around in absolute horror, he realized in that split second that perhaps he was not as safe as he thought.

It was still dark and he had not bothered to turn on a light so he couldn't really tell who they were as he strained to see who it was.

Finally they stepped closer and turned a light on.

"Surprised to see me?" Said the face of his cousin Narcissa.

She looked different from when he had last seen her, she had obviously taken a great deal of beauty enhancement potions as she had a terrific figure that she could not have achieved naturally.

"How did you find me?" Sirius managed to croak out, still unused to speaking.

"I knew you would come here cousin." She answered, "The only place that you could be assured you would be safe. It's fortunate for me that your mother gave me a key to it before she passed and gave me the location."

"You here to capture me again, put me back in Azkaban and collect the reward money?" Sirius asked.

"I don't need any reward money," Narcissa answered, which he realized was true, it wasn't like her husband was a pauper, "and besides, there won't be going back for you, the Minister has already ordered that you be given the Dementor's kiss immediately upon capture."

He blanched with fear, being given the kiss had always been one of his greatest fears. He had been lucky to escape it 12 years ago.

"Why are you here then?" Sirius asked.

"I'm here to help you Sirius." Narcissa replied simply.

"Why would you want to help me after everything I put you through?" Sirius queried.

"I still love you Sirius, even if you did rip out my heart." She said, "We could have had many beautiful children together if you hadn't gone off and run away."

"We were cousins, it just wouldn't have been right." He told her in his defense.

Narcissa and he indeed had a history together. As children, both sets of their parents had decided that the best way to preserve their family blood purity was by having him and his cousin Narcissa be betrothed to each other.

Growing up, they had spent a great deal of time together as a result. This led to a rather close relationship between them, causing Narcissa to actually fall in love with him, while he never could see her as anything more than his cousin.

Eventually that was one of the reasons he had run away from home and went to go live with James. He cared for Narcissa deeply, just not in the same way.

When he had left and had his name burned off of the family tree, her parents quickly formed a marriage contract with her and Lucius Malfoy, someone she had always despised, but forced to hide that loathing from anyone else besides him. He still felt guilty for leaving her out to dry like that, even if he couldn't have known who she would be forced to marry instead.

"I'm truly sorry Narcissa, for everything that I put you through." He tried to say.

"I know, you did what you had to do, and so did I." She answered, "Not that it did either of us any good. You spent 12 years in Azkaban, and I've spent 14 with Lucius. It's still pretty close who got off worse, I'd say. I still can't help but think of how things might have been different had we ended up together though."

He could think of nothing to say to that.

"I'm going to help you Sirius, even get you exonerated if I can." She announced.

"How do you know I'm innocent?" He asked.

"I know you Sirius, you would never have done something like that." Narcissa said simply, "Besides, I've heard Lucius talk about it."

"That sounds awfully risky of you to try and help a convicted criminal." He commented.

"Well I'm not exactly doing it for free." She answered.

He wasn't surprised by this, Narcissa was the most cunning person he knew, she always got something from everything she did.

However the only thing that he could currently think of that he could offer her was sex, which if he had to choose between the Dementor's kiss and having his soul ripped out or doing his admittedly now very attractive cousin, he'd have an easy answer to that. This was not what she had in mind however.

"You left me in quite a predicament." She began, "I kept my hatred of Lucius a secret, of course, but he still has treated me even worse than I had ever imagined. I may be able to buy anything I want with his money, have the nicest clothes, buy the perfect body, whatever it is I want, but it still has not bought me happiness. Outwardly I must act like a cold, socialite wife who dotes upon him and fulfills his every whim while I know that he commits heinous and unspeakable acts behind locked doors."

"I was grateful when he stopped touching me after Draco was born. He instead turned to captured muggles that he always Obliviated in order to satiate his appetites, the price I suppose for not having to share his bed."

"Draco, my son, my only real reason to even put up with it has become more and more like his father now, so cold and callous and bloodthirsty, I hardly recognize him anymore. I am ashamed of what he is now as his mother."

"I have been looking for a way out of my marriage ever since I was betrothed to him."

"I'm sorry you had to go through that Cissy." He said, going and giving her a hug, yet now suddenly aware that he must smell terrible.

She didn't seem to mind though at that moment and returned the hug, even if it probably did stink up her nice clothes.

"I wish I could go back and fix it." He said glumly.

"We can't change the past, but we can change the future." She said, "I never could discuss it with you while you were in prison in case Lucius found out I went to go see you but now that you are out we have a chance."

"If you were exonerated of your crimes, you would be able to take over as head of the Black family, which would allow you to annul my marriage to Lucius."

"Only if he was convicted of a crime." Sirius pointed out.

"Which is why I'm going to get him convicted of one." She said, "Lucius has been very careful of not leaving any evidence around or letting me in on his schemes, but I'm still hopeful I can get something on him. I can then take half of everything from him, all of his money, property, Wizengamot seats, half of everything he owns. The other half would go to Draco, who as his mother I would be able to take control of until he came of age."

Sirius allowed himself to grin and say, "You know I would be happy to get Lucius in prison and rob him of at least half of everything he owns."

"It won't be easy to pull all of that off, but I think we can do it." She informed him confidently, "Now I need to get to my other part of the plan. You are still Harry Potter's godfather, but since you were in prison, Dumbledore managed to get magical guardianship over him. I only just learned that Dumbledore apparently placed him with Lily's Muggle sister and her husband."

"He put him with the Dursleys?!" Sirius asked incredulously, "That scumbag! The one place Lily clearly stated she did not want her son to grow up in if anything ever happened to her and what does Dumbledore go and do?"

"At least he isn't there anymore." She commented, "I don't know where he is now, even Lucius hasn't been able to find that out as far as I can tell, just that the Dursleys were arrested for child abuse and are now serving 7 years in Azkaban."

Still upset by this new information, he almost didn't hear what she said next. "Lucius has been trying to kill Harry."

"I know, he told me while I was in the same cell as him awhile back during his night in prison." Sirius answered, "That's one reason why I broke out, so that I could protect him from Lucius."

"I've got a plan for that too, if all goes well it will keep Lucius from trying to kill Harry, get you exonerated, and also reinstated as Harry's magical guardian."

Such a plan seemed too good to be true, and as the saying went if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

"What's the catch?" He asked.

She now looked very nervous, something totally unusual for her, and said hesitantly, "You aren't going to like it."

"What is it?" He asked.

"I'd like to adopt Harry." She told him.

He promptly fainted.

Author's Note: Don't automatically assume Harry is getting taken away from Amelia. As usual I like to put in controversial problems found in society, and having a marriage contract between both Sirius and Narcissa I thought was a very interesting thing to explore even if some of you may not like it. JK Rowling actually mentions in books 5 and 6 of cousins being married off to each other in pureblood families, and Sirius' mother actually marries a cousin of hers. The way I'll be doing it hasn't been done before so I thought I would explore it in a different light beyond the now frequently found Harry/Lily or Harry/some other made up female family member where neither of them really have any misgivings about committing incest, which is completely ridiculous. Having Narcissa be in love with Sirius, but Sirius naturally hesitant to return any affections I find to be very fascinating. It's believable however for their family to have done that, and for Narcissa, after having grown up with the knowledge that she would be marrying Sirius and spending a great deal of time with him, to fall in love. It would be equally believable however for Sirius to have a great deal of misgivings.

Some interesting facts found in my research: Apparently among many middle eastern countries marrying first or second cousins is quite common, ranging from 30 to 50% of all marriages in some countries. 10% of all marriages worldwide are between 2nd cousins or closer. I had no idea it was that high.

Also the concerns about birth defects is actually not as bad as I thought, as children produced by first cousins have about a 4% chance of birth defects as opposed to 2% found in the general population.

Okay, here's a ridiculous question: let's say you have a long lost cousin that is the most beautiful or handsome person with the best personality that you have ever seen, depending on your gender or sexual preference. If you had to choose between getting killed or having sex with them which would you choose? Keep in mind that it will be a secret that only you two will know.


	24. I love you

Chapter 24

I love you

When Sirius finally awoke the next morning, he found himself in a bed.

He remembered talking to Narcissa and hearing about her plan, then he must have fainted.

He came to for just long enough to be given some potion by her, which he drank down only to fall asleep again.

Getting up, he made his way back into the kitchen to find her busily making breakfast.

"Good you're up." She commented as she put down a plate full of crepes.

"I didn't know you could cook." He commented as he looked down at the plate full of food. He hadn't seen such a wonderful meal since before he was locked up.

"I guess I'm just full of surprises then." She said smiling.

Sitting down at the table, he hungrily began to eat.

"I figured you could use a little help getting your strength back." She told him.

After swallowing a mouthful of crepe he said, "Aren't you worried about Lucius noticing you being gone?"

"I'm supposedly vacationing in France." She admitted, "I try to be gone as much as I can on principle anyway so it shouldn't raise any of his suspicions."

"Thank you, Narcissa." He said gratefully. It had been a long time since anyone had done anything nice for him.

"Like I said, you're important to me, in more ways than one." She said, which he chose to ignore thinking about just ways she was implying.

She allowed him to finish eating, while she ate herself until finally she asked, "Do you remember what we were talking about last night?"

It was still a little bit hazy but he still remembered just why he had fainted in the first place.

"You said that you wanted to adopt Harry," He replied, "which admittedly causes me to question your sanity."

"It's actually a pretty good plan for all those involved." She said, "The thing is Lucius keeps trying to kill Harry because Dumbledore has been manipulating Harry in various ways to have control of the Wizengamot. He really has nothing against Harry himself other than the fact that he shamed his son in a duel, and to be perfectly honest, that only increases his worth if we were to adopt him."

"Excuse me, but I do believe you said we?" Sirius pointed out.

Narcissa was one thing, but certainly she wasn't actually suggesting that Lucius...

"That would be correct, Harry would also be adopted by Lucius." She answered.

"Why on earth would I ever allow Harry to be adopted by your worthless, scum sucking husband?" He asked, totally uncaring if she found this insulting, which she evidently didn't.

"It's very simple," She explained, "while I may not have proof that would get you freed, Lucius does."

"I already have proof," he said, "I found where that rat Pettigrew has been hiding, the one who framed me for all those murders."

"You're a convicted criminal, even if you did catch Pettigrew without getting caught there would be a very good chance someone uses a Dementor on you before you can explain the truth to them. Also there would still be legal problems sorting it all out. You would need someone who not only has the connections needed to catch Pettigrew, but also provide other indisputable evidence of your innocence. Lucius happens to have those connections and that evidence."

"Why would Lucius help me?" Sirius demanded.

"In return once you are reinstated as Harry's magical guardian you will pass that status over to me." She explained.

"Why can't I take care of Harry on my own?" He defended.

"It's unlikely you could ever get custody on your own." She pointed out, "You don't have the connections in the Wizengamot to take it away from Dumbledore without Lucius' help, and you've been in Azkaban for 12 years, that would raise major concerns as to whether or not you were physically or mentally stable enough to raise a child."

He did have to concede that she did have a point. Many prisoners that actually got out couldn't even take care of themselves, much less anyone else.

She continued with, "Obviously if Lucius could he would have gained guardianship over Harry a long time ago, but Dumbledore is too strong in that department. However if you were to be reinstated as his godfather you would then have the power to bequeath that honor to another competent magical adult such as myself. The fact that you are family would only make things easier."

"That would be great except for the obvious fact that Lucius would get a huge amount of seats in the Wizengamot from Harry," Sirius pointed out.

"Actually they would go to me, and by the time that all the legal problems were sorted out including the objections from Dumbledore, we should have enough evidence gathered against Lucius to get him put in prison."

"I see, so that's your game Narcissa." Sirius said, finally starting to get it, "You're gambling on the fact that Lucius will hold back on trying to kill Harry if there is a chance of getting his seats in the Wizengamot and thus taking a majority of it, but before the adoption can go through we get enough evidence against him to get Lucius convicted and thrown in prison immediately afterwards."

"Correct," she answered, "then I would become Harry's sole magical guardian."

"Which would mean you would have all the power." He pointed out.

"Well yes, I suppose I would." she said in a tone as if she didn't already know that, which of course failed to fool him. She knew exactly what that meant.

"What happens if we don't get enough dirt on him in time though? I'm not letting Lucius take over like that or get his claws into Harry," he said.

"I have a back up plan." She announced.

"You care to share it with me?" He asked.

"It doesn't matter now." She tried to say hastily, "What does matter is if you want to take advantage of this opportunity, it will offer both of us everything we've ever wanted, your freedom, Harry's safety, Dumbledore greatly weakened, Lucius in prison, it's perfect."

Sirius had to admit that the way she had just put it did sound tempting, and after all it wasn't like Narcissa was really a bad person, he supposed he could live with her having control of a large portion of the government for a few years at least until Harry came of age.

"I suppose I could agree to that." He said hesitantly.

She grinned as she said, "I thought you would see things my way."

Then unexpectedly and uncharacteristically of her, she went and gave him a hug.

DUELDUELDUEL

The dueling tournament had gone rather well so far with Harry and Su both having made it all the way to the semi-finals only for Su to lose her duel with Lao, leaving him to face Lao in the finals the next day.

By now he was feeling very pressured, as everyone had kept trying to push him into ever more last minute training, leaving him feeling overwhelmed and nervous as expectations for him mounted, expectations he just wasn't sure he could meet.

He'd finally had to ask everyone to leave the practice room they had been using except Su, who asked if he wanted to brush her hair again, as this usually helped calm him down, as well as herself, who was still angry about having lost to Lao again.

Now as he ran the brush through her hair she seemed a lot more calmed down, though still upset.

"I still can't believe I lost to that jerk." She claimed for the hundredth time.

"You'll get him next year." Harry claimed reassuringly.

"More like you'll beat him this year." She said supportively.

"I hope so..." He said.

"You'd better win," Su told him firmly, "whatever it takes."

"Lao is a really good competitor." He argued.

"So are you, whether you realize it or not." Su answered as she turned to look back at him, "You're even better than I am."

"I'm only lucky." He protested.

"Let's hope luck is on your side again tomorrow then." She told him.

"We'll see..." He said, still somewhat nervously, all this talk about the upcoming duel tomorrow was once again making him feel pressured.

"Your hair is getting long." He claimed, trying to change the subject.

"It's always been long." She replied, recognizing his lame attempt to change the subject, "But yes, it has grown a bit, even though you can't really tell as well since I've grown too."

"You seem to have inspired the other girls though," He pointed out, "Pansy in particular, she keeps measuring it to see if it's grown any."

"I'd suggest you definitely get that girl a hair growth potion for her birthday," Su said, "then maybe she would stop being so upset about how hers is shorter than everyone else."

"I already pre-ordered it." He said smugly, pleased with himself that he was so on top of things so in advance.

"She'll love that." Su answered before trying to take advantage, "So if you're so on the ball, what did you get me for my birthday?"

"Your birthday isn't until December." He reminded her.

She blushed and said, "Can't blame a girl for trying."

As this gave him an excuse not to focus on the upcoming duel, he asked, "So what would you like for your birthday, or Christmas anyway? I highly doubt you would need another hair potion."

Since Su's hair was now calf length, he supposed that this would be true, although one never knew with Su, she tended to sometimes have rather interesting fashion ideas, including the length of her hair.

"No, I think I'll just let it grow naturally and see how long it gets." she told him, "Actually I was hoping for a tight black dragon hide pants and shirt."

Imagining Su in such an outfit caused him to instantly go red, and caused him to immediately make a mental note to get it. He loved it when the girls wanted gifts that would be beneficial to him as well.

"I'll see what I can do." He answered, doing his best not to give anything away.

"You don't have to if you don't want to." She said, "I still feel pretty bad about the gift I got you for your birthday."

"It's okay," He said, "I loved getting a couple of new daggers from you."

This was actually true as throwing them into the basilisk had rendered both of his daggers no longer usable.

"You deserve better." She claimed.

He really couldn't understand why she felt so strongly about it, as her gift was certainly a welcome one. Yet he was certainly taken aback by her next statement.

"I love you, Harry." She said.

This was definitely not what he was expecting her to say, and caused him to immediately flash to his recent conversation with Fleur between loving someone and being in love with someone. While he loved Su, he wasn't sure he was in love with her. So which did Su mean?

Finally he said tremulously, "I, um love you too."

As soon as he said it, he felt bad. Not only was he unsure just what kind of love he was supposed to be professing, he had answered her back in a far too hesitant tone, as if he wasn't sure, which no doubt would mess with her mind even more than it did his.

He tried to rectify his mistake, but she didn't allow him to finish.

"Well I think I'd better go get some sleep." She claimed quickly as she got up and left, even leaving her brush behind.

Stupidly, he let her go as he still couldn't think of what to say.

After she had left, he sat there for a few more minutes, still wishing he had known what to do.

DUELDUELDUEL

The next morning Su was still worrying about the end of her conversation with Harry.

She felt like she might have ruined things between them, especially when he had said I love you back so hesitantly. He had said it, but it sounded like he was being pressured to do it.

How she had acted, walking out on him like that had probably only made things worse and made him feel even worse, and that was definitely not what she wanted to happen, especially since he really should be worrying about the duel he was going to be fighting in very soon.

She'd tried to get him alone, but everyone else was around him all morning, and she still wasn't sure just what to say.

Why did she have to tell him that she loved him?

"Because you do love him." A voice inside her head said.

All right, so she loved him, admitting it to herself for the first time.

She didn't just love him, she love-loved him, as in in love with him, to the point where she could no longer imagine a future without him, couldn't help but continually want to spend ever more time with him, see his beautiful green eyes, hear his voice...

Grrr... now she was getting all sentimental and mushy, which was definitely not what kind of girl she was. She'd always hated all the sappy, romantic stuff that some of the other girls were spouting, and yet here she was, fawning over a guy, even if he was the best, most incredible guy on earth...

That was enough! She couldn't do this, she couldn't think this, not yet, she was too young, and too focused on dueling for her to fall in love, and besides Harry needed her in a different way as he needed to be totally focused on the finals.

She would just have to pull him aside before the duel, and tell him that she hadn't meant what she had said, that she only loved him as a friend or something else made up. As wonderful a thing as realizing that she truly loved him, if he didn't feel the same way then she didn't see how she could live with herself with him knowing like that.

However before anything else could happen, Amelia noticed her quietly sitting on the bed, having just come back into the hotel room for her purse.

"What's wrong Su? I thought you'd be keyed up with the duel and already in the arena with the other girls?" She asked.

"Sorry I'm just worried about something." She answered.

"About Harry losing?" Amelia asked.

She was tempted to answer yes and make things easier, but instead she decided to admit the truth, as perhaps Amelia might have an idea on what to do.

"I told Harry that I loved him." She confessed.

This caused Amelia to be slightly taken aback, but fortunately she was quick to respond without any long awkward pauses. "I see," She said slowly, "and what did he say?"

"He said it back, but I could tell he wasn't very confident in saying it." Su confided.

"Why don't you tell me the whole story?" Amelia suggested.

She did so, even relating her worries about the whole thing.

After she had finished, Amelia finally said, "Well I can't say I know what you're going through, but I can say that I've been on the receiving end of it. A boy I knew back when I was at school told me he loved me, but I couldn't return the feeling. The problem was I was already betrothed to someone else and so was he."

"What did you do?" Su asked.

"I did what I felt I had to, I finally had to tell him that we would never work as a couple. He then tried to insist that we could run away together, free from our families' influences, but I held firm even though I was admittedly tempted. He was incredibly romantic in his attempts to woo me, I'll admit."

"What happened to him?" Su queried.

"When he saw that he wouldn't be able to convince me he ended up running away from his betrothed anyway and we never spoke again, to which I am grateful, he turned out to not be the man I thought he was." She answered, "As for me, the man I was betrothed to ended up getting killed by Death Eaters a couple years later just after we wed. I ended up inheriting his money and a great deal of influence, but I never kept his name. We never loved each other either, but he was still a good man in his own right."

"I'm sorry." Su said with the only thing she could think to say.

"It's all right, it was a long time ago and I almost never think of such things anymore." Amelia admitted before she seemed to realize that she needed to give her more advice, "However we need to get back to you. What I would recommend is that you talk it over with him. If I am right, I would say that Harry was just a little surprised by your announcement and didn't know how to react, and probably meant it when he said he loved you, just that he didn't feel ready to say that he was actually in love with you. Try to be understanding and accept that while he might not share your feelings, that doesn't mean that he won't in the future."

"Thanks Amelia." Su said giving her a hug.

"Falling in love with someone in an arranged marriage is a rare and exceptional thing, you should be pleased that you will be marrying someone as good as Harry and that you've fallen in love with him." Amelia replied.

"I am," Su said, feeling much better, "Harry is just so..."

"Don't worry, I know." Amelia said reassuringly.

"How?" Su asked.

"I've had this conversation before on Harry's merits with Susan, you aren't the only one who has deep feelings for him." Amelia revleaed.

Su got up to go find Harry, only to discover that he was already inside the dueling arena where she couldn't get to him.

Finally having to concede that she would just have to talk with him after wards, she sat down in the front row of the stands along with Susan, Pansy, and Fleur and Gabrielle who were both huddled together under Harry's invisibility cloak so as not to allow their slave collars to attract attention.

DUELDUELDUEL

Meanwhile Harry was getting ready for his duel, now entirely focused on the matter at hand, winning the duel. His nervousness about it was at least keeping any thoughts of Su out of his head.

As he studied his opponent across from him, he noted that Lao was looking entirely confident, even cocky enough to wear a smug grin on his face as he looked back at him.

This only served to make him slightly more angry as he had seen such a smug grin on numerous people's faces and he liked to wipe such grins off.

Lao however, if he was honest with himself, would be much much harder than the usual bullies he put up with, such as Malfoy and Ron, and would require a great deal more skill.

As the announcer began the duel, he listened while continuing to study his opponent.

Having seen all of Lao's duels, he had found him to be a fierce and unpredictable opponent, capable of landing solid and fast spells, but also good enough to use many different types of magic to win, most of which he had never seen before, all while mounting a seemingly impenetrable defense.

The truth was he really had no idea just what Lao would use against him this time, leaving him unsure just how best to counter him. This was also just why he would be so difficult to defeat.

During Lao's last duel with Su, he had actually managed to summon several water demons by creating a summoning circle, leaving her unable to deal with multiple opponents that she couldn't figure out how to defeat quickly enough.

After bowing to Lao, the duel began and he immediately began firing spells at his opponent.

Lao, instead of countering, quickly began dodging his spells, all while seeming to mutter something to himself.

He didn't appear to be pointing at the ground with his wand so he couldn't be trying to summon anything like he had with Su, but he still felt wary of what he was up to.

After trying to hit him repeatedly however, one of his hits went straight at Lao, only for it to instead of actually hit him, seemed to dissipate.

He knew that Lao hadn't used his wand to wave the spell away so it could only mean that he was using some shield of some sort.

Using a few different spells that he knew to work well in destroying shields, he tried hitting it, only for the same thing to happen.

Evidently the shield was altogether different from the types he was used to fighting against.

Yet as he tried barraging it, it felt like all he was doing was making himself more tired out. Indeed he felt much more exhausted than he was used to feeling this early in a duel.

Meanwhile Lao sat calmly continuing to mutter to himself while he pointed his wand at his shield.

As he continued to try and find a way to break through, he began to see a thin yellow outline of his shield as it was evidently getting stronger.

His shield in fact went all the way around him like a magic cage, unlike any other shield he had seen before.

By now he felt exhausted as the shield only got bigger and bigger with each attack, and that was when he finally realized just what was going on.

Evidently Lao was somehow using a shield that was not only able to repel but absorb his spells into the shield itself, only making it stronger by taking some of his opponent's energy.

It probably had the downside however of not being able to have anything leave the shield, which was why Lao wasn't retaliating.

He instantly stopped while he stood there trying to think of something he could use to break through it.

Lao however seemed to know that he had figured out his plan and started muttering something different and as he soon began to feel more like his energy was leaving him, all while the shield got stronger.

He supposed that the shield had already gotten so much of his magical energy that it was easy enough for him to use another spell to continue that transfer of energy.

Still trying to come up with a solution, he created a rock and levitated it directly into the shield.

The shield instantly absorbed the rock, only causing the shield to get slightly stronger and develop a slightly greyish tinge to it.

So the shield took on the consistency of whatever hit it, he surmised.

He tried casting spells at it that would hopefully weaken it, such as shooting water at it, but it seemed to reject the water, seeming to only be willing to take spells into it that would make it stronger.

Even as he tried to think of what to do, he realized his remaining energy was leaving him, soon he wouldn't have any energy left at all.

His attempt at another spell failed to work, he just didn't have enough energy left for it.

He knew that he was finished even if he could think of a way to break the shield he wouldn't have enough energy to use it. As he tried to even remain standing, he now only had enough energy left for the simplest and weakest of spells, and that was when it hit him. The chances were low that it would succeed, but there might actually be a chance that it would work.

"Flipendo!" He yelled even as he collapsed to his knees.

His spell was weak, barely even a successfully cast spell, yet when it met with Lao's shield, the shield tried to absorb it. The shield, once again seeming to be almost sentient in its choosing what would make it stronger or weaker, accepted it as instead it flipped around and began absorbing all of Lao's energy instead as it only got stronger.

Evidently Lao wasn't expecting such a thing to occur because his eyes opened wide with shock.

He tried to end the spell but the shield collapsed in on itself instead hitting Lao in the process, no longer bound to protect what it perceived as what was making it stronger.

Instantly Lao collapsed, all of his energy drained out of him at once.

"WE HAVE A NEW CHAMPION!" Yelled the announcer.

Harry allowed himself to grin, them collapsed, his own energy now gone.

When he awoke, he found all of the girls standing over him inside his champion's tent.

"You did it! You won Harry!" Pansy said enthusiastically.

"How long have I been out?" He asked.

"A few hours." Su answered, "We were told by the medical staff that you would wake up soon though."

"We got you your trophy." Susan commented, holding up a huge golden trophy with a gold duelist on it.

The trophy was actually so big that both she and Gabrielle were having to carry it, with Gabrielle not caring that she was now visible as the tent was closed and nobody could actually see her.

"Has Lao woken up yet?" he asked.

"Just a few minutes ago." Su confirmed, "I heard him even from here, and his father was so mad, yelling at him in mandarin, swearing like a drunken chinese sailor, something about shaming the family and being a loser, that sort of thing. You gave him a beating he likely won't ever be able to live down."

Su seemed to be looking at him as if he was her hero.

Continuing to bask in his hard won victory, he continued talking animatedly with the girls, before who he recognized to be the Atlantean Mayor arrived with the head of the World Dueling Association, followed by several of the Atlantis city council.

"My congratulations to you Mr. Potter, it was certainly an interesting duel to watch." The head of the dueling association said, offering his hand, which Harry shook.

Harry recognized him to be Mr. Goldberg, while the Mayor was named Mayor Glumfish, and like all Atlanteans had a green tinge to his skin, although he was quite a bit fatter than the average Atlantean, more on par with his Uncle Vernon, and had a handlebar mustache. The combination looked just as horrifying as one would imagine it would.

"You weren't present for your acceptance speech for us to ask you, so we decided to allow you to choose what you would like transcribed on the plaque at the bottom of your trophy." Mayor Glumfish announced.

Harry grinned, he'd already put a lot of thought into it. "First of all I would like to have this trophy displayed for all time at Atlantis City Square."

"Harry are you sure?" Pansy asked incredulously, "Why give up such a beautiful trophy?"

"I'm sure one of us will win one of them next year." He claimed, at that moment feeling rather confident having just won.

"It would be an honor to have such a trophy." The Mayor agreed, "I'm glad that Atlantis so impressed you to willingly give us your trophy."

He grinned back and said, "I would like it to read 'This is for all the downtrodden slaves and servants in this city. Freedom shall come.'"

The Mayor predictably blanched at that, yet Poulti behind him now wore a huge grin.

"I don't believe that can be done Mr. Potter." Glumfish answered lamely.

"I do believe I have the final say in what can be transcribed on the trophy as you have no jurisdiction over that." Goldberg pointed out, "Since he won it fair and square he gets to decide what he wants on it. Whether or not you choose to leave it in the city square is up to you however."

"Since you are unwillingly to receive my magnanimous gift," Harry surmised, "I do believe I'll leave it with Mr. Poulti. Mr. Poulti could you manage to find a use for this trophy?"

"I certainly can, Mr. Potter." Poulti said as he struggled not to laugh.

Wherever Poulti planned to take it, he hoped it was a good one.

Goldberg raised his wand and etched into the plaque at the bottom of the trophy just what he wanted.

After everyone all left, he got a lot of scowls from Glumfish and most of the city council, but smiles from Goldberg and Poulti, the latter of which was last to leave.

Holding up the huge trophy as best he could he told them, "I'll give it to the Merpeople to put inside their slave quarters. They should keep it safe and away from the city council or anyone else while they look at it. I would guess that they will treasure it highly."

"Do you think it was a bad idea doing that?" Harry asked him.

"Not at all, even though you certainly made the city council unhappy." Poulti confessed, "I would suggest you not return to Atlantis in the near future."

"We won't." Harry promised easily, "Although once I'm old enough I'm going to see what I can do about applying pressure on the International Confederation of Wizards on slavery and Merpeople's rights here. It was actually Susan's idea though."

He looked over at the redheaded girl.

"Yet you were the one who thought up the trophy idea so you at least get credit for that." Susan answered.

"If I or Susan don't do something who will?" He asked, "And I simply can't just leave it up to Susan who will no doubt do it anyway."

"I certainly will!" Susan said smartly, "When it comes to injustice, first Britain, then the World!"

Understanding Susan's resolve, he chose not to judge Susan's rather bold proclamation.

"I hope one day that will prove to be true." Poulti said wistfully.

DUELDUELDUEL

They all chose to leave Atlantis rather than stay any longer than they had to and quickly left the city, leaving Gabrielle and Fleur in particular grateful for the end of their very unwelcoming stay and no longer having annoying collars around their necks.

After finally getting home, Harry was once again exhausted and he got into bed as soon as he got there, yet just as he was laying down to sleep, he heard a knock on his door and someone entered his room, closing the door behind them.

"Harry are you still awake?" asked Su's voice.

"Yes, but barely." He answered.

She didn't wait for him to turn on the light and instead sat down on his bed while still shrouded in blackness.

"You know this could be really difficult to explain if someone found us like this in the dark." He admitted, causing her to laugh.

"If they did I'd just snog you senseless." She said half-jokingly before her tone got more serious, "I really need to talk to you about what I told you before."

He immediately froze up, knowing exactly what she meant. "I'm so sorry Su, I..." He tried to say.

"It's okay Harry, I understand." She admitted, "You just don't feel as strongly about me, am I right?"

He nodded before realizing she couldn't actually see him. "I do love you Su, I'm just not sure I'm in love with you." He answered.

"I guessed that." She replied, "I just don't want things to be awkward between us afterwards."

"So can I ask whether you love me, or do you like really love me?" He asked.

"More like really love you." She confessed, "I didn't mean to feel this way so soon, but I just couldn't help it. I love you and I don't think that's ever going to change, in fact I think it will only grow stronger."

"That's perfectly okay." He said, now relieved that he knew all of this, "I was just worried about how you felt when you realized I didn't share the same exact feelings just yet."

"I was pretty worried myself, but fortunately Amelia helped me sort it all out." She responded.

"Well I'm glad we were able to work it out." He said.

"So am I," She replied, "I just couldn't stand it if you held it against me."

"I'd never do that Su," He told her, "I may not be in love with you, but I certainly hope to one day."

"I love you Harry." She confessed again, now seeming to mean it even more, "Can I have your permission to show how much I love you?"

"Sure..." He answered, although not entirely positive just what she meant.

Through the blackness, she found his lips with her own and began kissing him, and rather than the usual quick kisses he usually got from the girls, or even the somewhat longer kisses that Fleur sometimes gave him, this one was a lingering, long, and lasting kiss as she took the time to explore his lips, causing a newer, longer burst of enjoyment to come from him. Some of the boys in his year would have termed this making out, and the actual kissing actually lasted longer than this realization as he allowed himself to kiss back, having discovered just how much he liked this.

Still, whether it was just a minute or a few years, Su finally finished kissing him, leaving both of them breathless as they were forced to pause to take in air.

"That was um...really something." He admitted.

"Yeah." She replied, just a breathless.

She got up to leave then, but before opening the door she said, "I love you, my champion."

He didn't care much for nicknames, but after a kiss like that he wasn't complaining.

She opened up the door and left, leaving him to relive the memory yet again as he drifted off to sleep.


	25. Sweet Freedom

Author's Note: I guess I need to explain the difference behind guardianship and custody again if people still don't know entirely based off of my understanding of how it is done in the U.S.

Guardianship provides a person with the ability to act in the best interests of the child and handle their affairs including finances and any legal representation. They also have the ability to grant custody where they feel the child would be best cared for. A guardian may also exercise the right to take custody of the child themselves and also adopt them. Dumbledore is Harry's magical guardian, and he exercised that right and placed him in the care of the Dursleys who were only given custody of him and allowed to raise him but had no authority to act in his name for anything in the magical world. It was actually a rather smart move on his part for as muggles the Dursleys could not represent Harry in the magical world and thus he would face less challenges to the legitimacy of his status.

Dumbledore however could have only obtained guardianship if first there was no available competent magical family members of Harry's or someone already appointed by his parents in the event of their deaths which in this case was Sirius.

Since Sirius was in prison he of course was deemed unsuitable for this position and Dumbledore managed to get himself appointed instead. Once Sirius is declared innocent however Sirius now has the legal right to regain this position or pass it onto someone else of his choosing deemed competent to do so, such as Narcissa.

Chapter 25

Sweet Freedom

Harry reminded himself once again of trying to follow the plan as he sat aboard the Hogwarts express along with all of the girls on their way back to school for the summer.

The plan was of course being tricking Dumbledore into thinking that Tonks was really an Atlantean girl now betrothed to him.

They had rehearsed how to act over 100 times so he felt like he knew how to handle himself.

Tonks was currently outside wearing his invisibility cloak so that she could spy on Draco, to which they were grateful as the compartment was now too full for her as well.

Of course he wasn't complaining as he now had both Gabrielle and Fleur sitting on either side of him while he ran his fingers through Gabrielle's hair.

"What do you think we'll have to fight this year?" Su asked excitedly.

"I can't imagine anything worse than what we've already fought," Susan surmised.

"More like Harry's fought, he's always getting the decent monsters," Su pouted.

"I'd happily have let you fight the basilisk if you had been there," Harry claimed.

The truth was he really couldn't think of anything that could possibly be worse than the basilisk, nor would he have ever let Su get anywhere near it.

It was at that moment, however, that the lights went out and he began to feel very cold and clammy as he began to hear a woman's voice begin to scream.

"Not Harry, not Harry," the woman said.

"Step aside girl, step aside," came another voice sounding almost inhuman.

It was then that he saw a hooded figure enter the compartment, only it seemed to glide in and had mottled green hands.

Whatever the creature was, it was absolutely terrifying as it reached towards them.

To his surprise, he felt Gabrielle collapse onto his shoulder, evidently having fainted.

He cast a spell at the creature, but to no avail. It didn't even seem fazed by it.

Finally he began to feel lightheaded himself as he struggled to remain conscious all the while the woman's voice repeated over and over again in his head, which he now realized was somehow the memory of when his mother had been killed by Voldemort.

The compartment began to fade and a vision of the inside of a house began to occupy his sight.

It would get to where he would see a flash of green light before the memory would start all over with his mother pleading for his life until she was hit by a killing curse.

"Expecto Petronum," someone yelled.

Wait, what? That wasn't part of the memory.

Instead he found himself now totally aware of the real world as a silvery white large chameleon charged at the creature, forcing it back and causing it to glide away.

"I can't believe they allowed dementors onto the train," Tonks fumed as she removed the invisibility cloak she was wearing, "are you all alright?"

Harry went to go check on Gabrielle, who was only just now beginning to come to.

"What happened?" Gabrielle blearily asked.

"You must have fainted when the dementor came in," Tonks explained.

"What's a dementor?" Gabrielle asked.

"It's a creature usually used by the ministry to guard Azkaban," Tonks informed them, "I"m guessing Fudge must have decided to order them onto the train to search for Black. I'm confident if Madame Bones had known about this she wouldn't have allowed it, at least not without telling us first."

He had been focused on Gabrielle, but as he looked around he noticed that all of the girls didn't seem to look too good, especially Fleur who looked like she might faint as well.

"If you've still got some chocolate frogs I'd suggest you have some, it should help," Tonks suggested, "in the meantime I've got to go check out the rest of the train and make sure there aren't any dementors left.

She put the invisibility cloak back on and headed out.

Tearing off pieces of the chocolate frogs he still had left, he gave some to each of them and as he bit into the chocolate he instantly began to feel better.

"Did everyone relive their worst memory?" Susan asked.

"Is that what was going on?" Gabrielle asked.

"What did you see or hear Gabby?" Pansy asked.

"I saw myself back inside the house that the slave traders were keeping us in," Gabrielle answered.

"So did I," Fleur admitted.

"That must have been awful," Susan said soothingly.

"I saw my mother get killed," Harry admitted.

"Ooh Harry," Pansy said.

"It's okay," he said, "it was actually kind of nice, just to hear what my mother's voice sounded like."

"That's still messed up though," Su commented.

"I think I'll leave to let you all go change," he announced, not particularly wanting to discuss his rather morbid curiosity as to watching his mother be killed.

DUELDUELDE

Tonks or as she now had to refer to herself, Aqua stood with the nervous looking first years in the great hall as she pretended to listen to McGonagall blabber on about the houses, although she found it interesting that she chose to disregard entirely house peeves. Evidently either Dumbledore had asked her not to or she still refused to recognize it.

She did however listen rather attentively to the sorting hat's new song:

McGonagall chose to disregard what the hat said in the song and began calling the names of the students one by one.

Finally her name was called at the very end.

"Aqua Hydro," McGonagall called as she went up to go put the sorting hat on.

She noted that everyone was staring at her, and several were whispering, probably about being a transfer student, her green skin, or they just found her attractive.

Choosing a body had been difficult for her as she knew that she should have a body that would not attract too much attention yet it was kind of difficult with green skin and a very attractive body.

The attractive body had actually not been her idea as she was obliged to pose as the actual daughter of an Atlantean noble who had died in an accident several months before while vacationing at a muggle beach resort. Poulti had managed to convince him to hold off on announcing her death so that she would have a decent and verifiable cover.

Since he and Poulti were actually good friends and he owed a huge favor to him, the noble had agreed, even though the few weeks that she stayed with him in order to build up her cover had been tough for both of them as she served to be a constant reminder on the daughter that he lost.

Putting on the sorting hat, she tried to block the sorting hat from reading her mind by using Occlumency.

"I'm afraid that won't work Ms. Tonks," the sorting hat told her.

"How did you know it was me?" Tonks asked.

"I like to think that I'm rather skilled at such things," the hat told her.

"You aren't going to say anything to Dumbledore are you?" Tonks worriedly asked.

"Why should I? After keeping me stuffed in his desk drawer all year I would hardly consider us friends, and I'm not required to tell him anything," the sorting hat said.

Relieved, she chose to ask the hat, "I'm sure that from being in Dumbledore's office has allowed you to hear a lot of things, perhaps anything illegal that Dumbledore may be up to."

"I'm afraid I can't help you there, I'm forbidden from revealing secrets about the headmaster to anyone," the hat informed her, "wish I could though."

She had been expecting that, but it didn't hurt to try as it would certainly have made her job much easier.

"If you could manage it, I'd really like to be put in Peeves as that should help my cover," she asked the hat.

"I don't just put someone into any house they feel like, although I never put someone into a house that they don't want to be in," the hat told her.

"Very well," she said quietly back, "then please not Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, or Slytherin."

The hat seemed to laugh at that and said, "you think you're so smart don't you?"

"I try," she answered cheekily.

"Dumbledore threatened to shove me back into his drawer if I sorted anyone into Peeves this year," the hat informed her, "you do realize you'll be consigning me to darkness and a very cramped space."

"I'll get Peeves to steal you if that happens, I'm told he's now into that sort of thing if we ask him," Tonks suggested.

"It appears we have a deal," the hat concluded, "and at any rate you would be best suited for PEEVES."

The hat shouted out the last word and she instantly pulled off the hat and went over to the house peeves table where Harry and the girls were sitting.

"How did you manage to get the hat to sort you into Peeves?" Pansy asked, "none of the first years got sorted there."

"I'm going to need you to convince Peeves to steal the hat later," Tonks informed her without answering her question.

They both turned to listen to Dumbledore get up and begin delivering his speech.

"As most of you should know by now we currently have an escaped criminal on the loose but you should all know that certain security measures have been enacted to keep you all safe," Dumbledore informed them.

"We all know that's a lie," Susan muttered.

"Part of the security you may have already noticed on the train ride here when the dementors came and checked the train," Dumbledore continued.

"So that's why Fudge had such an easy time with sending the dementors, Dumbledore and he probably collaborated and decided to do it, probably to both at least appear to be concerned about security," Pansy concluded.

"The dementors will remain on school grounds ready to act should they be needed," Dumbledore said.

"I find it very interesting that he'll allow dementors but not aurors to patrol school grounds," Pansy pointed out.

"Dementors wouldn't care about anything that he's secretly doing, they just care about sucking the happiness out of everything and catching Black," Tonks said.

After Dumbledore finally got done speaking, he sat down and the food arrived as they began hungrily eating.

"Did we get a new student?" a voice from just behind her asked.

"We did Peeves," Pansy replied calmly as if having Peeves float invisibly behind her was a common occurrence, "this is Aqua."

"I am the great founder of House Peeves," Peeves claimed in the same tone of voice one might use to announce that they were ruler of the world.

"You got any pranks for me?" Peeves asked.

"I do actually Peeves," Tonks asked, "I'd like you to steal the sorting hat."

"I asked Pansy newbie," Peeves snidely said.

"I'm afraid you're going to have earn your stripes first before you're ready to start making requests of a master prankster like Peeves," Pansy said, "we'll have to show you how things work, won't we Peeves?"

"Absolutely," Peeves agreed in a gleeful tone that suddenly made her very nervous just what she meant.

"Still stealing the sorting hat would be a great prank," Pansy agreed, "how about I bet you 3 firecrackers Peeves that you can't steal the sorting hat right now without anyone else noticing?"

"I could steal Dumbledore's own nose without him noticing," Peeves bragged, "better be ready with those firecrackers."

A few seconds later, they watched as the sorting hat mysteriously disappeared from its stool that it had been left on, although no one seemed to notice.

"Pay up," Peeves claimed a moment later.

Pansy reached into her bookbag, apparently already keeping the firecrackers for just such a purpose and handed them to Peeves, where they quickly disappeared.

"I think I'll hold onto the hat for awhile," Peeves suggested.

It took awhile for anyone to actually notice the hat had been stolen as it could have simply been put away while they weren't looking, but Dumbledore eventually noticed even though they were all already on their way out of the great hall when he did.

He hurried up to them and stopped them in the hallway.

"Would you know what happened to the sorting hat Ms. Hydro, you were the last one wearing it and now it's gone?" Dumbledore asked her.

"I put it back down onto the stool," she claimed trying to sound like a nervous new student, "everyone should have seen me leave it."

At that moment, he looked into her eyes and she immediately noticed that he was trying to use legilimency on her, probably to ascertain if she was telling the truth or not.

She kept up her shields and forced him out, causing a look of surprise to form on his face. His attack hadn't been very strong but then again he probably wasn't expecting a defense to be used against him.

"Where I'm from, mind reading without permission is illegal," she said.

"I have an exemption to do as I see fit for the safety of the school and its students," Dumbledore claimed.

"I believe I still have the right to mentally defend myself," she pointed out.

Dumbledore tried next to scan Harry, followed by Susan, but both of them forced him out as well.

"It was part of pre-auror training this summer," Harry informed him to prove just where they had suddenly learned occlumency, "and now I'm definitely glad I learned it if you are going to go around trying to do that to us."

"I'm merely trying to help you Harry," Dumbledore told him.

"I certainly wouldn't say mind raping to be helping," Harry said, "we didn't take the sorting hat."

Dumbledore was about to reply when suddenly Peeves materialized directly in front of Dumbledore.

"Lookee what I gots!" Peeves cackled with glee as he held up the sorting hat for Dumbledore to see.

"Give that back Peeves, that is the property of the school," Dumbledore demanded.

Once upon a time Peeves was at least somewhat respectful of Dumbledore but evidently now being considered a founder with his own house sort of changed things. Now it appeared he was only listening to people in his own house, particularly Pansy.

"I like this hat," Peeves claimed as he twirled it around for good measure, "if you want it, you'll have to take it from me."

Peeves bravely grabbed Dumbledore's beard and tugged on it before floating away out of his reach.

"You'll give that back Peeves," Dumbledore roared.

Dumbledore fired a spell at Peeves, but Peeves quickly dodged it.

"Nah nah, you'll never catch me," Peeves said as he continued to taunt Dumbledore.

Taking advantage of Peeves' distraction they made their leave and headed down through the castle into the House Peeves common room.

DUELDUELDE

Over the next few days, Dumbledore was unable to get the sorting hat back from Peeves, who now wore it proudly like a trophy and evidently wasn't very happy with finding out from the sorting hat that Dumbledore had told the sorting hat not to allow any new students into House Peeves.

They all could only wonder just how the sorting hat was feeling being worn around the castle by Peeves.

Still they had bigger problems to focus on, mainly getting dirt on Dumbledore, who remained entirely secretive and unhappy that he could no longer steal information from their minds, which only meant that he had evidently been doing it for quite some time.

For their first defense against the dark arts class, they all minus Fleur had doubled up class with the Gryffindors to find out more about their new DADA teacher and took bets on just how long he would last.

When Professor Lupin finally strode into the class, Tonks couldn't help admitting quietly:

"He is rather handsome at least."

"Aren't you rather young for him?" Harry asked.

"Aren't you a little young for me?" Tonks countered back.

At the look of several of the girls, Tonks shrugged her shoulders and asked, "What? I have a thing for guys a lot older or younger than me. Just because I'm here on assignment doesn't mean I can't find Harry cute like the rest of you."

She immediately clammed up, not because she was afraid someone overheard her but simply because she needed to avoid making similar references to her undercover assignment in the future.

After going through a brief introduction of the class Professor Lupin had them start their first lesson: tackling a boggart.

Yet when it came for Pansy's turn, it instantly transformed into Draco beating a likeness of herself. The likeness of her actually had a ring around her finger with what appeared to be the Malfoy family crest on it.

She seemed upset at the image but she quickly cast the riddikiculus spell, causing Draco to turn into a bug and the likeness of herself squashing it with her foot.

Susan's turned out to be a likeness of a dead Amelia, Su's was a dead Harry, Tonks a monkey, which caused the class to immediately laugh even in its original form.

She sheepishly told them she had had a bad experience with a monkey at a zoo when she was little.

When it got to Gabrielle however, the boggart assumed the form of Gabrielle, only in chains and in tattered clothing, obviously abused and malnourished as she looked holocaust survivor thin with numerous bruises and cuts all over her exposed body.

She immediately burst into tears, preventing her from being able to cast the spell.

At this time, Professor Lupin stepped in and pushed the boggart back into the closet it had been hiding in.

He tried to console Gabrielle, but Gabrielle instead put her arms around Harry and cried into his shoulder.

As Lupin got back to dealing with the rest of the class, she confessed:

"You must think me so silly, not even able to handle a boggart."

"I don't think that," he informed her, "you've just been through something more horrific than the average person ever has to to go through. Most people never actually have to live out their fears in real life, whereas for you it might have been all too real."

She looked at him and asked, "just where did you get so smart Harry?"

"Reading all those human behavior books Susan got me for my birthday," he admitted, "they've actually been a lot more informative than I thought."

She gave him a long kiss, not even caring if the rest of the class and their professor happened to look over and notice.

"You know I never get tired of kissing," he claimed, causing her to laugh.

"Neither do I," she admitted as she gave him another quick kiss just for that.

DUELDUELDE

After having Narcissa to look after him, Sirius' health was steadily improving.

She seemed to dote on him and he realized that in spite of everything, she still quite obviously very much loved him, causing him to continually feel bad for leaving her to marry Malfoy.

Still she seemed to take it in stride and at least a friendship had blossomed between them, rekindled after so many years.

She kept him apprised of just what he had missed during his long years of incarceration, including her family life.

Most importantly, however, they focused on the plan as she had finally gone to Lucius to see if a deal might still be struck.

He had agreed, on the condition that he meet with him in person, so now he and Narcissa were headed over to a neutral location for them to work things out.

This was easily the most stress filled moment for him since his initial escape as Lucius could very easily try to turn him in and stab him in the back. He was prepared to apparate out as soon as possible, but there were still no guarantees, other than the one that Narcissa gave him.

Lucius wouldn't risk passing up such a deal like that.

Entering the abandoned house that would serve as the meeting place he and Narcissa found Lucius currently standing there waiting for them.

His instincts told him to be cautious, as he couldn't fully trust Lucius, but he seemed to have an entirely different attitude toward him now.

"Ah Lord Black," Lucius greeted him in a very respectful tone.

Evidently if it suited him, Lucius could act like a very different person than what he was used to, even though the title that he had called him by was actually defunct as a convicted murderer had any titles removed.

"Lord Malfoy," Sirius said in an equally respectful tone, having already been coached by Narcissa as to how to behave.

"You're looking much better than when I last saw you," Lucius observed.

"I've been eating better," he admitted in return, although failing to mention that it was actually because of his wife nursing him back to health.

Narcissa had wanted to keep the extent of her constant visits to be known by Lucius to be only a few different times so as not to raise any suspicions.

"I'm glad to see that you finally came to your senses, this deal will be life changing for you I'm sure," Lucius pointed out.

"I do believe that it will be mutually beneficial," Sirius admitted, following the script Narcissa had already rehearsed with him, although not wanting to speak too much as he didn't trust himself not to give anything away.

"Why don't we get started shall we?" Narcissa recommended.

"Of course," Lucius said.

"As you both know I will be serving as intermediary to you both," she began as she pulled out a long piece of paper, "and I've taken the liberty of drafting a magically binding contract which you both have had the opportunity to look over before hand. In it, Lucius agrees to submit evidence that will allow for Sirius' pardon. Once reinstated Sirius will then pass magical guardianship over to me and allow for the adoption of Harry James Potter. If neither of you have any further objections please sign here."

She pointed at two lines for them to sign at the bottom.

Lucius paused with his quill pointing over the signature line and asked him:

"Tell me Black, why would you so willingly allow me to adopt a godson you profess to care so much about? In our last meeting you threatened to hunt me down and stop me from killing him."

"I thought better of it," Sirius answered, "as a runaway criminal I really can't do much to stop you and this way Harry stays safe, better than safe in fact as I imagine it would be in your best interest to keep him safe, he will be a huge asset to you as your adopted son after all. I'm also not pleased with how Dumbledore is using him and you are the only one with the power to keep Dumbledore in check."

"What makes you so sure I can be trusted?" Lucius asked.

"I don't trust you as far as I can throw you but I have to choose between you and Dumbledore and you can make me a free man. I'm personally tired of either languishing in prison or running from the law. I'd have sold out my own mother if that would have gotten me out of Azkaban."

This was actually true as he had watched his mother do enough illegal stuff for her to deserve to have been in prison, and even had the gall to visit him in prison when he had been first arrested and declared that being a death eater and killing all those muggles was actually the one good thing he had done in his life. She had actually seemed to be proud of him. He never even bothered to try to convince her that he didn't do it.

His godson however was another matter.

In truth he actually felt like he was sending his godson to live with the devil, but he wasn't about to tell Lucius that. If Narcissa failed to get him put in prison in time, he would be forced to take action against him. However, he had learned to trust Narcissa long ago. When she felt she could do something, it was going to happen.

Lucius however seemed satisfied with such a response and signed the contract with a flourish.

Sirius leaned over and signed it as well.

"Pleasure doing business with you," Lucius told him.

DUELDUELDE

The next morning Ron Weasley was currently in his dorm room, trying to feed rat tonic to his sick looking rat Scabbers when he was entirely surprised by the Minister of Magic and the entire Board of Governors for the school, recognized by pictures he had seen of them.

"What on earth are you all doing here? This is a Gryffindor dorm room." Ron asked accusingly.

Before even bothering to answer, Lucius Malfoy seemed to point his wand directly at him, and in fear Ron shut his eyes.

Fully expecting to get hit by a spell, he was shocked as he reopened his eyes to find that he hadn't been hit at all, yet when he glanced down at Scabbers, Scabbers was knocked out.

"What did you do to my rat?" Ron angrily asked.

"We just need to examine your rat for a second," Fudge informed him.

Without further explanation, one of the governors pointed his wand at his rat and to his alarm Scabbers began to grow bigger.

In alarm, he leaped back only to find no longer Scabbers but a fully grown man now lying on his bed

"It was as you suspected Minister," Lucius claimed, "Pettigrew really is still alive."

"I'm still wondering just how you could have known," one of the governors asked Fudge.

"I received some anonymous evidence this morning on my desk that appeared to be legitimate," Fudge claimed, "someone must have known that only I could be trusted to do the right thing when it came to this."

Fudge was the Minister of Magic so of course he would, Ron thought, but that still didn't explain why Scabbers had been turned into a man.

"What happened to Scabbers?" Ron demanded.

"Sorry boy, it's top secret still," Fudge told him, "we'll just take this man with us and be on our way."

One of the school governors levitated the body of the man and they all started to head out, yet one of the governors stopped as he noticed the many empty or full bottles of various alcoholic beverages, Seamus and him finally having managed to turn water into rum, beer, and a few other things he wasn't sure exactly were but Seamus had insisted were great.

"Is this yours?" He demanded.

"That's um cleaning solution," Ron tried to argue.

Cleaning solution, good one, he thought mentally, who said Hermione was the smart Gryffindor?

"Picking up one of the bottles, the governor sniffed it and said: "It's rum."

"I've never seen 13 year olds behave in such a way," a pompous lady governor insisted, "drinking at this age!"

He didn't bother to inform them that they had been trying to do so since the beginning of first year.

"We're going to have to confiscate these and inform your head of house once we've finished dealing with this piece of trash," one of the other governors said, kicking Pettigrew for good measure.

This had to be a horrible dream, Ron thought.

DUELDUELDE

A few hours later found Amelia at her desk, once again filling out stupid paperwork.

Amelia was entirely unprepared for the firestorm that would suddenly greet her as Fudge came into her office without any warning or introduction.

"There is a lot to tell Amelia, but to make a long story short, I've just fixed the mess you've made with Sirius Black," Fudge informed her.

"The mess I made!" She asked incredulously.

No way was Fudge trying to blame it all on her again.

"It turns out that Black never killed Pettigrew or those muggles and I have Pettigrew himself in custody as proof as well as a great deal of other hard evidence," Fudge claimed.

This was a total shock to her, she even wanted to reject Fudge's claims but he put down several documents, including a recent picture of Pettigrew down.

"I do believe you'll find it is all there, I went with the Board of Governors for Hogwarts myself to collect Pettigrew," Fudge told her.

"You really should have contacted me about this sooner Minister," she said.

"The Board of Governors were more than happy to help me out and with them there it was not necessary to inform you about anything before hand," Fudge informed her, "you should probably also know that Sirius Black also just surrendered himself to me and my office an hour ago."

"What!" She asked.

"He seemed to have heard about Pettigrew and knew that he was likely to be exonerated. With the evidence at hand I've already issued a full pardon and scheduled an emergency trial in the Wizengamot for Peter Pettigrew to be conducted late this afternoon."

As alarming as all of this news was, Fudge acting without her knowledge and so quickly was equally alarming. She knew that there was no way that he could have come up with all of this himself, he must have had help.

The problem was who would have helped him? The only person she could think of that could pull this off was Lucius Malfoy and she thought it unthinkable that he would choose to help Sirius Black, an apparently innocent man so that the real death eater and killer could be convicted. She couldn't help but wonder what his angle was.

"I'd like to go see both Pettigrew and Black," she asked the Minister.

Author's Note: If I read one more story about where stupid Pettigrew is captured and gets Sirius Black exonerated only for him to escape immediately after because everyone suddenly forgot that he can still change into a rat or put an anti-animagus spell on him I'm going to blow my top. This is one of the stupidest and most common fanfic mistakes in my opinion and I am so tired of everyone using it so that Pettigrew can still go resurrect Voldemort. Not in my story. Instead Pettigrew will die. That's a promise.

Also anyone else a little bit freaked out by the fact that in the first movie, they have Seamus spending so much time and effort trying to turn water into rum? He seems more than a little eager as an 11 year old to want to do so, although I suppose children that young can get into it with the right background.


	26. A Time of Trial

Chapter 26

A Time of Trial

Still not quite able to believe it she accompanied Fudge to see both Pettigrew and Black as it was really the only way she would ever be satisfied.

Amelia found Pettigrew unconscious in a holding cell at the ministry, but she scanned him with her wand to see if he was simply being Polyjuiced or had some other spell on him.

He didn't, taking away her last vestiges of doubt.

This put her into a rather awkward position as she would now be addressing a man that she had once known very well and had led a manhunt for for months.

Finally satisfied that it was indeed him, Fudge took her to see Sirius in another room.

Just outside she told Fudge. "I'd like to speak with him alone for a minute."

"Just a minute." Fudge agreed. "We still need to speak with him before the Wizengamot meeting and Pettigrew's trial."

She opened up the door and shut it behind her, no longer worried about being alone with him now that he was innocent, besides she needed to see him without anyone else around to witness how she might react.

Given the nature of their history together, present circumstances, and having no idea just how he would react to seeing her she couldn't say for certain how she would react either.

He was sitting in a chair on the other side of the room who immediately turned to look at her.

As soon as she saw him, a wave of emotions and thoughts ran through her as she realized that the man that she had thought that he was was entirely a lie.

For the 2nd time in the last 12 years she allowed herself to really think of what they used to be.

They had had a secret relationship for awhile back at Hogwarts as they had both been betrothed to different people, and it was him that she had been referring to when talking to Pansy back at the dueling tournament about love.

He had been incredibly romantic and she had been very attracted to him and to the forbidden love that they had at one point, yet she had felt obligated to obey her parents wishes and marry her former husband instead.

For years she had always regretted that decision and thought of what might have been despite her best efforts to put it past her.

When Sirius was convicted of all those deaths however she had managed to completely rid herself of such feelings, no longer even thinking of them as Sirius having been proven to be a killer, Death Eater, and traitor seemed to prove in her mind that she had made the right decision.

Now that she knew that he was framed however all of those emotions came rushing back as she gazed at him.

He looked entirely different from the wanted posters that she had spent so much time looking at.

Instead his hair was now short and his beard and mustache gone, now completely clean shaven. He had put on a considerable amount of weight so he didn't look like a skeleton with skin anymore, and no longer had a gaunt look on his face. He even looked quite handsome now, more the old Sirius she had once known only older. Azkaban had still wrought a toll on him.

"Hello Amelia," Sirius said as he looked up and gazed into her eyes. "You're looking well."

"So are you." Was all she could think of to say.

"I want you to know I don't blame you for anything." He tried to explain.

"I still feel guilty." She admitted.

He seemed to be struggling with what to say as well, but he finally said, "I really need to tell you something before the Wizengamot meeting."

At that moment however Fudge came back with two guards. Evidently they had spent more time simply staring and thinking of what to say than she had thought.

"I'm afraid that is all the time that we have available, I'm sure you can speak with him afterward." Fudge claimed.

She didn't object, mainly because she was still too busy dealing with her own emotions and could no longer hold them in check.

A tear actually escaped one of her eyes and she quickly turned her face so that no one could see. She couldn't be caught crying, not in front of Sirius and Fudge.

She had hoped she would be okay, but this was proving too much for her, she just couldn't deal with this right now. Whatever he had to tell her would have to wait.

Quickly opening up the door she headed back out to try and make sense of things.

DUELDUELDUEL

She finally managed to regain her composure enough and buried herself instead in paperwork. Never had she been so grateful to have paperwork.

Later that afternoon, during Pettigrew's trial which she attended, Pettigrew confessed to everything in exchange for a quick execution as he didn't want to spend the rest of his life in misery and in Azkaban.

Still his plea was granted and he was scheduled to be executed the next day by killing curse, a fitting end for him she thought, even if the method of execution was rather tame in her opinion.

Personally she felt that it was simply too convenient and figured someone must have had a hand in convincing him to confess so easily.

Directly after Pettigrew was led away, with guards keeping an anti-Animagus charm on him to keep him from escaping in that way Fudge once again addressed the Wizengamot.

"Our next order of business is to discuss the current state of Mr. Sirius Black." Fudge announced, "Mr. Black, if you would please approach the bench."

Sirius Black walked up and sat down in the witness' chair, causing her heart to start thumping loudly at the sight of him again.

"Let the record show that a full pardon and exoneration has already been issued." Fudge said first thing, "It is proposed that Mr. Black be reinstated under the title Lord and his seats in the Wizengamot. All those in favor?"

Immediately almost all of the hands went up, including Lucius Malfoy and his usual voting bloc. She reluctantly did the same. Reluctantly because she found herself in the uncomfortable position of voting in agreement with Lucius, rather than because she didn't want Sirius reinstated.

"Let the record show that a majority vote was reached." Fudge continued before pausing to read his next point, "There is also the matter of the newly reinstated Lord Black being godfather and magical guardian to one Harry James Potter."

Now her jaw dropped as she realized just what this meant. During all of the things that had so recently transpired with Pettigrew being found to Sirius Black being exonerated, she had completely forgotten about that.

How could she have forgotten about that? She had obviously been affected even more than she thought.

That was an absolutely huge, game changing thing right there as Dumbledore would be losing magical guardianship of Harry and thus his seats in the Wizengamot as well as his persona of protector of the boy-who-lived. Sirius would be inheriting that role, and with the seats he could now claim as Lord Black, it was a really big deal.

"I do believe we should call into question Lord Black's mental, emotional, and physical capability to raise a child." one of the delegates stated.

"I second that motion." Said another person.

"If I might have permission to speak, Minister?" Sirius asked.

"Permission granted." Fudge agreed, handing over the proverbial spotlight.

"I'd like to inform this body of witches and wizards that I do not wish to personally take guardianship of Harry James Potter at this time." He informed them all.

This caused a great deal of muttering and whispering among everyone.

"Due to my health and possible complications from my long unjust imprisonment I agree with the concerns already expressed and wish to waive my right to take him. However, I would like to exercise my perfectly legal right to take Magical Guardianship status away from Albus Dumbledore, who was acting in my absence and place it with someone else that I feel competent enough to do in his stead." Sirius concluded.

In that brief instant she sincerely hoped and believed that this was actually what he wanted to talk to her about earlier. He probably could not have known that she currently had custody of Harry but perhaps he had wanted advice on just where to place him. Had that been the case she would have happily told him that Harry was already safe under her custody. Now it appeared that she had missed her chance all because she had let her emotions get the better of her.

It could still be salvaged however, Dumbledore was bound to object and drag things out for some time, allowing her time to have a chat with him. Surely if he was anything like the man she had once known he would see reason and allow her to keep Harry?

As she expected Dumbledore immediately interjected.

"I do believe that I have done a more than adequate job serving in Lord Black's stead and see no reason for Magical Guardianship status to be taken from me." Dumbledore pointed out.

"I must remind you Dumbledore that such a status was only given under the condition that Lord Black remained unfit to perform his already appointed function by the express wishes of the boy's parents before their deaths." Lucius Malfoy declared.

So perhaps that was Lucius' angle if he really did aid in getting Sirius freed, he was hoping that with Dumbledore removed and replaced by Sirius that Sirius would be weaker and more easy to control perhaps even feel indebted to him.

Since she was pretty sure that Sirius still hated Lucius this last part seemed unlikely but she really couldn't be sure. For all she knew, Sirius might have actually been desperate enough to cut such a deal with him.

At the very least, having to deal with Sirius would probably be easier than with Dumbledore in Wizengamot votes. It was a bold, and unpredictable move in any case.

"I move that this matter be put on hold so that the matter of legitimacy regarding Lord Black's claim can be better ascertained." Dumbledore insisted.

"I see no reason why it can't simply be dealt with right here." Lucius demanded.

"Under the Statute of Child Guardianship status section 3, paragraph 5 the current Magical Guardian may request a delay of trial in order for him or her to gather evidence." Dumbledore explained.

Dumbledore was an idiot but he knew the law and he knew what he was doing. He would try to stonewall the transfer of Magical Guardianship for as long as he could, although even he must have known it was only a matter of time before he was forced to relinquish power.

At the moment everyone would be trying to get into Sirius' good graces again after everything had come to light and he definitely had the stronger legal claim anyway.

"Granted." Fudge allowed.

After a few more lesser items of business were discussed the meeting ended and everyone was free to go.

She had to wait for everyone else trying to cozy up to Sirius and lie about how they had "always known he was innocent" before she finally got to speak with him.

"I wonder if I might be able to speak with you in private Sirius." She asked.

"I'm afraid it will have to wait as I have several things to do now that I'm finally free." He told her.

His tone was not cold and she could tell that he probably was quite busy.

"Perhaps another time?" She asked him.

"How about tomorrow at 5 at that Muggle diner we once went to if you still remember the place?" He suggested

"I do and that would be fine." she admitted.

He grinned and suddenly she saw the real Sirius back, the one she had once known. "It's a date," He announced.

It was awfully forward of him to declare it a date, especially given everything that had happened between them, but since she really needed him to be happy when she discussed giving magical guardianship over to her she made no argument if he wanted to call it a date.

"I'll see you then." She told him.

DUELDUELDUEL

Harry numbly sat on his bed staring at his bedroom wall trying to process what Tonks had just told him, having chosen to tell it to him in private first.

Evidently his godfather, Sirius Black, who he had thought all summer had betrayed his parents and broken out of prison to kill him was... actually totally innocent.

The idea that as his godfather he might wish to take custody of him was also something that crossed his mind.

"Does this mean he's going to want to take custody of me?" He asked.

"Amelia said no as he apparently didn't feel healthy enough for it." Tonks informed him, "Although he wants to take Magical Guardianship away from Dumbledore as he feels that he's been rather incompetent in performing it."

"That makes two of us." He agreed lowly.

"This is actually a good thing Harry." Tonks said reassuringly.

"How so?" He asked.

"Amelia has already agreed to meet with him tomorrow and discuss granting guardianship to her instead." She told him, "This could be a huge opportunity for us."

"I suppose that it could be, I just like Amelia and I've liked living with her the past two summers." He confessed.

"If Sirius was anything like he was before he went to prison he'll make sure you go somewhere that you'll be happy, and after he sees that you are already happy with Madame Bones I'll bet he gives it to her." Tonks replied.

"How do you know?" He asked.

"I don't, but I know Madame Bones well enough to know that she would never let anything bad happen to you." Tonks said.

Another thought struck him.

"If Dumbledore ends up losing much of his power in the Wizengamot, especially if Sirius Black gives it to Amelia, will that mean you won't need to be here on assignment anymore?" He asked.

"Are you that eager to get rid of me?" She joked.

"No! I've rather liked hanging out with you." He confessed quickly.

"Well thanks Harry, so have I." She admitted, "Although no, Madame Bones already told me that she wants me to stay on long term no matter what happens if I'd still be willing, as she still needs me to protect you and collect evidence against Lucius Malfoy and Dumbledore."

"Have you gotten anything yet?" He asked.

"Not yet, but it's only been a week. I would guess that whatever he's up to it is hidden somewhere in the castle. With all the different passageways and secret rooms however it could take me forever to find it. I've been poking around looking for it, but who knows how long it will take me."

"The Weasley twins might be good to ask about that, they seem to have a really good knowledge of that sort of thing." He recommended.

"That's a good idea, I think I'll ask them." Tonks nodded with a thoughtful look.

They sat in silence for awhile before Tonks said, "You know you're a really good guy Harry, just thought you should know that. I can see why all the girls like you so much."

"Thanks." He answered.

"I'd have never thought it possible that one guy could keep that many girls happy but you've proven me wrong. I'll bet you could have twice as many girls and still keep them all happy."

He laughed and said, "Trust me, it isn't as easy as it looks, I can barely handle what I have, I don't need anymore."

"Have you gone any further with any of them yet?" She asked.

"We all agreed to wait on that, but I did make out with Su once after winning the tournament. It was great but I didn't really know what I was doing." He admitted.

"Would you like me to show you how?" Tonks asked.

Trying to sound casual and ignore his now thumping chest at her offer, he shrugged his shoulders and said, "Sure."

"All right, well wrap your arms around my waist and lean in and kiss me. Show me what you can do." She told him.

He nervously put his arms around her, careful not to go too low or too high, but moving in to kiss her was a bit more difficult.

"What's the matter Harry? We've kissed several times before and at least one or the other of the girls kisses you every day." She pointed out.

"They've always kissed me, I've never tried to kiss them in case they didn't want me to." He confessed.

She shook her head in amazement and said, "You've seriously got problems. Every single one of them would normally not have a problem with you kissing them when you wanted to. I'm giving you homework right after this to go kiss the first one you see."

"I guess I could do that." He grinned.

"Now there's the spirit!" She approved, "Now lean in, kiss me and let's see what you've got."

He did as she said, and leaned in and kissed her with his best kiss and slowly allowing himself to do what felt natural and deepened the kiss.

After he finally withdrew, she nodded approvingly and said, "Not bad Harry, not bad at all."

She continued giving him advice and allowing him to practice with her until he started to feel quite confident in his kissing skills, which she informed him was some of the best that she had received once he got the hang of it.

At the conclusion of just what had to be the best lesson ever, she said, "I think later I'll start giving you other lessons on romance and how to make girls happy, but I think we should keep it a secret for awhile and see if the girls notice on their own. Right now though I'd suggest you go find one of the girls to practice on."

Looking inside the girls' shared bedroom he found Pansy standing over her bed.

Without a word and using his new found bravery spun her around and kissed her deeply on the lips.

She seemed surprised, but did not resist when he deepened the kiss and made it longer and soon began responding back with equal passion.

Finally they broke apart.

"Wow Harry I really don't know what got into you or what I did to deserve that but I like it!" She confessed with a giddy air.

"Thanks!" He grinned.

"You better give me more of that on my birthday." She reminded him.

"I'll do my best." He agreed.

DUELDUELDUEL

Sirius sat at the Muggle diner waiting for Amelia to get there. He was quite eager to see her, more so than he had expected.

In truth when he had first seen her yesterday it had only stirred up old repressed feelings that he still had for her. He still loved her, in spite of everything that happened. During his long incarceration in Azkaban he had thought of her frequently, holding onto some vague fantasy that he would one day be free and that they would get together for a second chance.

Now it appeared that he just might have that opportunity as she wasn't married, nor dating anyone as far as he had learned. She had not even objected to it when he'd declared their meeting to be a date. With nothing seeming to now be in the way, he was eager to see if a relationship could still be forged between them.

The bell above the door to the diner clinked and jingled and he looked up to see her enter.

She was wearing a black knee length skirt as well as a black blouse that covered her large bust that had originally attracted him to her in the first place.

While this had been the first thing, truly getting to know her he came to love everything else about her as well even on the inside. In truth she had been to him what Lily was to James; a wake up call in regards to his behaviour.

She sat down opposite him still looking nervous to be around him so he decided to take the initiative.

"I took the liberty of ordering you a strawberry smoothie if you still like those to start." He said, pointing at the smoothie sitting directly in front of her.

"I do, thank you." She said as she went to go take a sip.

"I thought we could just try and catch up first." He said.

"That would be fine." She agreed.

"I know that you've been Head of the Magical Law enforcement for awhile but I'd still like to know how that's been going," he asked.

She began speaking, tentatively at first but soon it got easier and easier as he listened and continued to ask questions of her.

Finally he confessed, "It really is good to see you and hear your voice, I've missed you."

She actually blushed at that, a very good sign as she said, "I've missed you too Sirius."

"I know things are going to be awkward between us for awhile but I'd still like it if we could be friends at the very least." He voiced his hope.

She seemed to ponder this for a second before saying, "It just won't ever be like we used to be Sirius. We both went different directions in our lives, you were in prison and I spent that entire time putting people in prison. In fact over the past few months I've barely slept trying to put you behind bars."

"I don't, nor will I ever hold it against you." He told her honestly.

"I'm sorry for everything," She confessed, "the..."

"There's no need to apologize," He soothed, "can we just kind of start over?"

"We can try that..." She cautioned, "So what have you been up to lately?"

He decided to tell her about just how he had escaped, and even though she had already guessed most of it, she was shocked to learn that he was an unregistered Animagus.

Since he had been in prison for 12 years for a crime he didn't commit, he figured she'd let him off on that charge.

When the food finally got there, they continued their conversation and he felt like things were going as well as they could have gone. It felt almost like the years were slowly disappearing and she was still the young beautiful woman that he had fallen for so many years ago.

They must have talked for hours before Amelia finally brought up just why she had been wanting to meet with him.

"I know that you are planning to take guardianship status away from Dumbledore." She admitted.

"Is there a problem with that? After you hear everything I've learned about Dumbledore you would want to do the same..."

"No, you misunderstand, you actually have my full support in that. I know all about some of terrible things Dumbledore has done to take advantage of Harry." She corrected him, "However I felt that it would be important to help you understand who would be a suitable replacement for him now that you have decided that you aren't adequate enough in doing it yourself. Before I do so however I'll need an unbreakable vow from you that you won't tell anyone what I am about to reveal."

He did so, quickly so that none of the muggles around them would notice it and she continued:

"I've actually got custody of Harry now, I've had it for over 2 years now. He's been quite happy with me and I've grown to love him, even as my own son."

So that was it, he thought, now with a huge lump in his throat. The whole reason that she had agreed to meet with him, to go out on a date with him was because she wanted him to give guardianship of Harry over to her.

If he had known and circumstances been different he would have happily given it to her, but now he couldn't, the deal he had made with Narcissa and Lucius Malfoy required upon the loss of his magic for him to give that right to them. He also couldn't expect her to understand why he had made such a deal, she would likely not want to speak with him again if she found out.

It would come back to bite him, he knew, but he just couldn't risk losing her now, not after having so recently rekindled what they had lost.

"That's wonderful to hear Amelia." He told her trying to put on a happy face.

"I'm glad you think so," She said, "I'm sure that Harry would happily tell you the same thing that that is what he wants."

If anything he felt even more guilty as not only would he be screwing over Amelia but also his godson Harry, a child he had sworn to protect even when he was a baby. Narcissa would be good for him, but how would he react being taken away from Amelia when he was already so happy with her?

"So I was hoping that I could convince you of that." She asked him.

"I'd like to spend some time thinking it over and making sure that that really is the best option for him." He told her, hating himself for saying that.

"Of course," She approved, "I think it's very responsible of you to really make sure you are doing the right thing."

"So how is Harry?" He asked, trying to change the subject.

She chose to regale him of stories that she had either witnessed or learned about in letters home and everything that he heard about him caused him to burst with pride. His godson was evidently far better a teenager than he had ever realized.

He laughed with her and shared in the experiences that she shared, almost covering up the guilt he still felt.

When it finally got too late and Amelia had to leave, he begged, "Could I maybe see you again next Saturday?"

She amazingly nodded, causing him to want to leap for joy.

He had another date with her.

DUELDUELDUEL

Over the next several weeks, Harry continued to take more secret romance lessons from Tonks. In addition to kissing, she taught him how to be a true romantic: slipping little notes of appreciation or giving them a flower and based upon their reactions he found that they really appreciated it.

His favorite thing by far however is was snogging and it soon became not an uncommon thing to find himself making out with one of the girls who seemed to be quite pleased with his new found skills and, most importantly, his willingness to use them.

One thing he ended up doing, upon Tonks' suggestion, was organize a one on one date with Pansy for her birthday.

He had never had an official date before, but Tonks gave him plenty of advice and helped him plan it out.

They ended up having it in the school kitchens after the Weasley twins told him about how to get inside, and the house elves were more than happy to serve as waiters and chefs for them.

After enjoying a sumptuous meal of lamb and roasted potatoes and having a good conversation, he sent one of the house elves to go and get the rest of the girls so that they could all give her her presents.

While they waited for them to arrive, Pansy confessed, "I have to admit Harry you've certainly surprised us all these last few weeks, you've gotten to be an amazing kisser, you've gotten more romantic and started occasionally giving us poetry or little notes. You even set up a first real date for me for my birthday, we've all been wondering just what your secret is."

"I've been getting dating and relationships lessons from Aqua." He confessed.

Aqua of course being Tonks and she had managed to convince him not to tell any of them just where he was getting it from, but he couldn't resist telling any of them any longer.

It had admittedly been very beneficial to him as the girls now started wanting him to kiss them and he did so, often leading to short make out sessions between them. In fact he had just enjoyed one with Pansy at the start of the date.

"So that's how!" She exclaimed.

"It was really hard not to tell any of you." He admitted sheepishly.

"It was actually kind of fun with us guessing just how you were doing it." She confessed.

They were interrupted by the arrival of the other girls who pressed Pansy with their presents. After opening all of them, it left her with just his present to her, with her having saved his until last.

By now his Christmas and Birthday presents were legendary, and even though they tried not to show it, they were always expecting something good from him.

As she pulled out the hair potion from the wrapped bag, he explained just what it was supposed to do, "It's supposed to make your hair grow, and make it more beautiful and healthy."

She gave him a huge kiss on the lips and said, "Ooh thank you Harry, I love you."

"Do you really mean that?" He asked.

She seemed to hesitate for just a second before saying, "Yes Harry, I am definitely totally in love with you."

"Do I need to wait until my Birthday to admit the same?" Susan asked.

"Oh would you all just admit that you love him already?" Tonks asked with the air of a frustrated spectator.

"Fine then, I love you Harry." Fleur admitted, a saucy grin forming on her face "Now where's my kiss?"

Harry suddenly became the recipient of multiple professions of love while they took turns kissing him.

In the meantime, Pansy used her hair potion to grow her hair to knee length, her raven tresses now incredibly long and beautiful and since she still had plenty of potion left allowed Susan, Fleur, and Gabrielle to grow theirs just below their butt, something they had wished to at least try for themselves but didn't have the patience to let grow naturally.

DUELDUELDUEL

Over the next few months Sirius continued to strengthen his relationship with Amelia as they continued to date and by now even included kissing.

He didn't try and push any further than that as he could tell that she wanted to take things slow and really get a feel for things.

It was almost better even than when they had dated in Hogwarts except for that gnawing concern about denying her custody of Harry.

Although he knew he had to tell ever eventually, he still wasn't sure how to go about it.

It all came to a head however at a fine dining Muggle restaurant.

They had just started eating when she said, "These past few months have been amazing Sirius."

"I'm glad you think so, they have for me as well." Sirius confessed as he took the initiative to lean across the table and give her a kiss.

"I was actually wondering about an idea I had and wanted to know just what you thought of it." She announced.

"Go ahead." He said.

"I know that we have been taking things kind of slow but I keep thinking about just how much you seem to care for Harry and want to be a part of his life, and just as an idea I was wondering if you might want to spend Christmas with me at my house so you can get to know him a bit better."

While this was a great idea, he knew that Dumbledore would be losing Magical Guardianship status by then and Harry would be taken from her.

As he looked at her, and he realized that he loved her, he knew he couldn't still keep lying to her.

"I'm afraid that just won't be possible." He admitted.

"Do you already have other plans for Christmas?" She asked.

"No, but I'm afraid that the meeting to ascertain guardianship status has already been set for next week, I only just learned about it on my way here." He confessed.

"Surely you must understand by now just how happy Harry is with me." She countered.

"I'm sure he is but I already have someone else in mind to give guardianship and custody over." He finally admitted.

"Who?" She demanded, now sounding upset.

"I'd like you to hear me out first before you say anything." He defended, "You see I cut a deal with Narcissa and Lucius Malfoy. I agreed to give full rights of Harry over to Narcissa in exchange for them submitting evidence to the Minister that would get me exonerated. I figured this would also prevent Lucius Malfoy from trying to kill him. I heard about the attack on his life at the end of the last school year."

"So you decided to save your own skin and "protect" Harry by letting Lucius adopt him!?" She screeched, "You just led me on this entire time while the whole time you never intended to let me adopt Harry and instead put him into the hands of the most corrupt and evil family in Britain."

"I wasn't ever going to let Lucius actually get him, me and Narcissa have been gathering evidence against him to get him thrown in prison so Narcissa can gain sole rights of Harry." He confessed.

"Narcissa is just as bad!" She argued.

"No she isn't!" He defended with a surprisingly level of passion, enough to get her to calm down at least. "She was the only one to help me while I was on the run, I'd still be on the run if it wasn't for her."

"She's changed Sirius, from when you once knew her." Amelia countered, "I can only imagine just what kind of manipulative and evil schemes she's got going for Harry."

"It isn't like that!" He yelled back.

"I won't simply sit here and let you place Harry directly into the claws of that woman." She told him.

"I already signed a magically binding contract, and while I agree Harry is happy with you, he'll also be happy with Narcissa, I'm sure of it." He said.

"So you can't change your mind even if you wanted to." She surmised, "Well I suppose that leaves me with only one option myself."

She got up from the table and began to walk out.

"You're making a big mistake, you just don't see the opportunity here." He said.

"We're through Sirius, I don't ever want to see you again." She said as she headed out the door and left.

It certainly had not gone well, he thought as he sat there now alone, yet how else could it have gone? He had known right from the start that this would probably ruin their relationship but he had hoped that somehow she would be able to understand and forgive him.

Now it appeared that he had once again lost the only woman he had ever loved.

"Would you like dessert monsieur?" The waiter asked, shaking him from his thoughts.

"Get me your strongest alcoholic beverage." He asked.

DUELDUELDUEL

By the time he finally got home he was already a bit drunk, trying to drown his sorrows in alcohol.

He found Narcissa there in the living room.

"I thought you swore off of alcohol Sirius?" She asked him.

"Amelia broke up with me." He confessed.

Her eyes seemed to convey actual regret as she said, "I'm sorry, how did it happen?"

"I told her about our plans for Harry and she didn't take too kindly to it." He said.

"I could have told you that that was going to happen, especially since you kept it from her for so long." Narcissa stated.

"She would have broken up with me whenever I told her." Sirius said, "I just hoped that..."

"Let's get you to your room." She said as she put an arm around his shoulder and led him up the stairs. He followed her as she continued to talk. "Amelia just doesn't understand how good of a thing this can be nor how good of a man you really are, not like I do."

They got to the bedroom and he sat down on the bed while Narcissa began taking his shoes and socks off.

To his surprise she then began pulling his pants down.

"What are you doing?" He demanded.

"I just want to show you that even though Amelia rejected you doesn't mean that I haven't." She told him.

"We really can't do this Narcissa." He told her.

"Why not Sirius, don't you find me attractive?" She asked as she pulled off her shirt, revealing her large G cup breasts.

They were not natural, he knew as she had taken a potion to make them that size, but they still looked and probably felt real and were the largest he had ever seen naked as he watched as she removed her bra.

In truth Narcissa was the most beautiful woman he knew due to her various beauty enhancing potions and only the fact that she was his cousin had prevented him from having anything with her when she so obviously wanted him.

Yet as she undressed right there in front of him exposing her beautiful body to him, he thought perhaps this just wasn't a strong enough reason anymore. After losing Amelia and getting drunk, and the fact that he had not been with a woman in over 12 years he found he didn't care as much anymore, not when this opportunity presented itself.

He finally gave in and allowed himself to return her advances.

DUELDUELDUEL

Following their long night of passion, he awoke to find Narcissa still lying naked in his bed, currently running a hand down his thigh.

"This was a mistake." He confessed.

"Then it was a very wonderful mistake." She told him as she went and kissed him.

"No I let my emotions and the alcohol get the best of me." He argued.

"I've still been wanting that for a long time Sirius and you certainly didn't disappoint." She said with a pleased smile.

"Yet you know I don't love you," He said, "I still love Amelia."

"I love you though, and in time I hope that you'll return those feelings. Why can't we find out where it leads, especially since you've lost your chances with Amelia?"

"I just don't know..." He confessed.

Author's Note: Big step for Sirius and Narcissa, even though I can totally see it happen along with Amelia's reaction. In her mind Narcissa is just as bad as Lucius and how Narcissa has always been forced to act would give a lot of credence to that. However Narcissa is not evil, just misunderstood and perhaps a bit power hungry but for good reason. Think of Narcissa as the opposite of Dumbledore, a person who appears to be evil but is actually good and ultimately unwilling to sacrifice innocent people just so that she can achieve her own agenda and actually listen to people who might actually know better than she does. Almost what Dumbledore could have been. You'll find out more about her next chapter.


	27. Can love go two ways?

Chapter 27

Can love go two ways?

In the time leading up to the Wizengamot meeting to decide the rights to Harry, Narcissa had finally prevailed upon Sirius to continue their relationship.

She knew that he didn't love her, not yet anyway, but they still enjoyed many days and nights filled with passion.

The day before however as he lay on his bed next to Narcissa he once again began to have second thoughts.

"Do you really think I made the right decision with Amelia?" He asked.

"Of course you did Sirius." She reassured, "This is a great opportunity. We already have everything we need against Lucius to get him thrown in prison and now that you're with me you can even see Harry during the summers and over the Christmas holidays."

"I tried sending another letter to Amelia..." He confessed, "She wrote back saying that she still hadn't forgiven me and that she still didn't trust you, like you're evil or something."

"I already told you, I had to act like that around Lucius and other people, you don't really think I"m evil do you?" She asked.

"No," He admitted, "you've been really amazing Narcissa, in more than one way. I don't know what I would do without you."

"Thanks Sirius, and as long as you stay with me you can keep me on the straight and narrow and make sure I do the right thing." She said.

"You should know though that if I have a chance to get Amelia back I'm always going to choose her." He admitted, "Perhaps if I were to break the contract and give guardianship over to her then..."

"You would lose your magic, and she would likely still not have you back." She pointed out, "Just stick with me and the plan and you'll have everything."

While it was still tough losing Amelia, he had to admit, he rather liked being with Narcissa and he supposed he could learn to love her and be happy with her.

"Besides, you can't leave now," She informed him suddenly, "I'm pregnant Sirius."

"You're pregnant!" He asked incredulously.

"I suppose we forgot to cast the contraception charm at least one time." She said.

"I'm going to be a father?" He wondered aloud.

"Are you upset?" She asked nervously.

"No, I'm just surprised that's all." He admitted. "I was under the impression I was sterile after all that time with the Dementors. Never actually had that checked out though, so I'm not sure why I thought that."

The idea that he had gotten Narcissa pregnant with his child was a big thing for him. He now realized he couldn't try and get Amelia back even if he had a chance, he couldn't simply leave his unborn child like that. Like it or not he would need to be with Narcissa now.

"I won't ever leave you Cissy, I'll stay and help raise him or her." He announced.

She smiled and kissed him again.

DUELDUELDUEL

A few hours later though and Narcissa still couldn't get what Sirius had said about Amelia out of her head, which annoyed her to no end.

She had finally won, and gotten Sirius and everything else she could ever possibly want. The money, power, and potential that most had only dreamed of along with his child.

Despite commonly held belief, she didn't see herself as evil, nor was she the Muggle hating bigot like everyone thought. In fact, her plans would include actually making an alliance with the Muggles and Muggleborns, there was a huge amount of money and business that could be made by using magic to manufacture items, especially since she could use very cheap raw materials to transfigure or create things much more easily than muggles could.

Having studied Muggle manufacturing extensively, she had already made contact with several Muggleborns or Squibs who also recognized the potential.

In return she could integrate various Muggle technologies with magic that could serve useful to wizards.

However, despite the rather stagnant wizarding economy, the Wizengamot had continually blocked any pro-Muggle laws that would allow her to legally do so. With her new power in that area she could push those laws forward.

It really would be beneficial to everyone and once they saw just how valuable it could be, they would suddenly see things differently. As money was made and Muggles, Squibs, and Muggleborns would be suddenly valued as trading partners, and perhaps the bigotry and Pureblood superiority might diminish or even die altogether. So she didn't feel guilty at all about her ultimate goal.

What did concern her was that she was manipulating the man that she loved into getting it for her.

By the time this day was over she would finally have her husband in prison and she could start a new life with Sirius and their unborn child.

Getting pregnant had not actually been part of the plan, but it had been a welcome surprise and had certainly obligated Sirius to stay with her.

Yet there was that gnawing realization that she had actually manipulated Sirius and lost any chances he had with Amelia. With her pregnancy, he likely wouldn't ever try to get Amelia back again and he would lose his magic if he tried giving her what she wanted, but that didn't mean that she was under the same obligation.

From what she knew of Harry, he seemed to be the perfect son, the son that she had always wished she had instead of Draco.

She loved her son, but she also didn't like what he was becoming, and the sooner she could get him away from Lucius' influence the better.

Hopefully with having to live with Harry as she planned to outright adopt him, he would be influenced for good as Harry seemed to be the poster boy for what was right.

Yet she also felt guilty taking a boy away from a woman and a family that he already loved and was happy with just so she could effectively use him as an example for her own son.

She supposed that she could still take guardianship of Harry and claim his Wizengamot seats and still be able to enact her plan but allow Amelia to retain custody of him.

If it had been just her she would have likely done nothing as she still felt some resentment towards Amelia for getting Sirius to fall in love with her and also since she felt that his relationship with Amelia had actually helped cause Sirius to run out on her and leave her with having to marry Lucius.

However she decided right then and there that she would at least offer it to Amelia as it would be the right thing to do, even if Sirius wouldn't ask it of her.

Apparating to the Ministry, she walked directly to where she knew Amelia's office to be and ignored the secretary's protests for her to stop as she knew that Amelia wouldn't let her in otherwise.

When Amelia glanced up and saw her however, she said coldly, "What do you want?"

"Can we talk privately?" She asked as she shut the door to the office behind her, not even waiting for a response.

"I don't expect you to like, or even trust me, but I do want you to know that I have Sirius, Harry, and the rest of the Wizarding World's best interest at heart." She admitted, "Nor am I anything like what people say about me. I may have ulterior motives but I am absolutely nothing like my husband."

"Forgive me but I still can't simply take your word for it." Amelia argued.

"Then let me prove it to you." Narcissa stated, not backing down from the intimidating woman. "Sirius was going to give up his own magic just so that you could retain custody of Harry."

"He would really have done that?" Amelia asked incredulously.

"I kept trying my best to talk him out of it and I ultimately succeeded but I want you to know that Sirius loves you and he loves Harry and it bothers me that you don't seem to realize that he felt he was doing the right thing." She said.

"I know Sirius loves me but if he is going to lie to me about everything..." Amelia replied.

"He knew that he would lose you once he did, and he was proven correct. He had no idea that you had custody of him, otherwise he might never have made that deal with me." Narcissa answered, "He was put into an impossible situation and you only made it worse."

"What would you have me do?" Amelia asked.

"You could forgive him for one, and second of all I'm going to give you at least part of what you want and allow you to retain custody of Harry, even while I retain guardianship status of him."

"Why would you do that?" Amelia wondered.

"I know that it's the right thing to do." Narcissa responded, "Although it would be under the condition that you at least go talk with Sirius and try to work things out between you two."

"...I guess I could do that." Amelia finally said before admitting, "Perhaps I really did misjudge you, Narcissa."

"I'm really not the person you think I am." She insisted, "I'd also like to know if you are the woman I think you are."

She put down her stack of papers and files that she had brought with her that contained evidence against Lucius.

"It's all there, more than enough to convict him and put him away from the rest of his miserable life." She stated.

Amelia looked them over and said, "You know, if you're still trying to win points with me, getting me this certainly is a good way to do it. I've been trying for years to get him on something, how did you ever do it?"

"I have my ways," Narcissa claimed, "believe me it was quite difficult but well worth it. I've been wanting to see him in prison for a very long time. That would be just the tip of the iceberg as well. While I know that we've had our differences I'd really like us to work together, as together I feel we could put a lot of criminals away and improve magical society."

"You know when I first heard what Sirius had to say about your plan I thought it sounded too good to be true coming from you," Amelia said, "but I'm not about to pass up opportunities like the ones you keep giving me. Besides it'll give me a chance to keep an eye on you."

"I would expect nothing less." Narcissa agreed.

DUELDUELDUEL

After coming home, Narcissa admitted just what she had said to Amelia to Sirius, to his great surprise and that Amelia would be talking to him after the meeting.

"What about us though?" He asked her.

"I realized that if I really do love you, I wouldn't hold you back from the one that you truly love." Narcissa admitted.

He looked at her in absolute amazement before saying, "Just because I love Amelia doesn't mean I can't love you too Cissy."

"Well you'll have to talk to Amelia about it, but I wouldn't mind sharing if it's an option." She said slowly.

"Are you sure it isn't just because with her help you'd have even greater control of the Wizengamot?" He asked.

"I won't deny that the thought hadn't crossed my mind, but really it's just because I want you to be happy." She answered.

He gave her a kiss, and they began to get ready for the meeting.

DUELDUELDUEL

At the Wizengamot meeting, Dumbledore had Guardianship stripped from him after some debate and it was given to Narcissa Malfoy instead, who immediately passed on custody and gave it to Amelia, although it was done by secretly passing Fudge a note as to her wishes, so as to keep where Harry would be staying over the summer a secret.

Afterwards Amelia immediately went up with several of her Aurors in front of Lucius and declared, "I'm afraid I'm going to have put you under arrest."

"What for?" Lucius demanded.

"Just about everything I can pin on you." She said boldly, "The better question is what _can't_ I get you convicted on. I do believe I already have enough, even with your connections and money to get you in prison for a very, very long time."

"How dare you!" Lucius demanded before looking over at Narcissa.

"Narcissa, get my lawyers and do whatever else you need to do to get me out of this. You know what to do." He ordered.

She grinned, having waited for this moment for a long time before finally saying, "I'm afraid I haven't the faintest idea what I'm doing. I'm just your dumb, bimbo wife remember?"

He made a cry of rage and leaped at her, but one of the Aurors held him back and Amelia Stunned him.

"Looks like another charge for that. If you could please take him away to prison, I'll be there later." Amelia told the Auror gleefully.

"Don't you want to escort him there personally?" The Auror asked incredulously.

Amelia glanced over at Sirius and then said, "No, I've got something else I've got to do."

The Aurors took Lucius away and Sirius and Amelia went to go talk privately.

Narcissa couldn't tell what they were saying, but she still had hopes for them, yet as she patted her belly, she had hopes for herself as well.

DUELDUELDUEL

As Harry and the girls all rode the Hogwarts Express back home for Christmas, with Tonks having made herself so incredibly small so she could sit on Harry's lap as there would be no room for her otherwise, they chose to discuss a few things.

"Is it just me or is all of this crazy?" Susan asked, "We find out that Harry's godfather Sirius Black actually was framed and Peter Pettigrew is actually alive, hiding as Weasley's rat, then he decides to take guardianship of Harry away from Dumbledore, and he starts dating my aunt, and we all think he is going to give it to her, only for us to find out that he's actually struck a secret deal with Narcissa Malfoy who we are told not to trust, and she breaks up with him, only for Narcissa to actually _not_ be an evil monster and give custody back to my aunt, and Lucius Malfoy gets thrown in prison. Now they are apparently back together again even though Black is still with Narcissa and he apparently got her pregnant."

"Yeah that about sums it up." Su concurred.

"She didn't actually say that they were back together again, just that they were trying to work things out." Pansy reminded.

"She invited Narcissa and Sirius to stay with us over Christmas so I think that's kind of a big step to getting back together." Susan pointed out.

"It is a rather awkward situation," Harry said optimistically, "but as long as Amelia is happy I won't bother her about it."

"I'm still kind of worried about the whole thing though." Susan confessed.

Harry didn't blame her, it was a rather difficult thing to go through for any child to see their parent or person they were raised by start dating someone, much less if you added everything else that was going on to it.

"It could be worse, your aunt could have run off with a centaur like one of my friends did." Tonks said.

"That is true, but from what I've heard you have some pretty weird friends though." Fleur concluded.

"Aren't you still supposed to be pretending to be a doll?" Gabrielle asked of Tonks.

"I'm a witches' doll, they can still talk and say a few things." Tonks reminded her.

"Well then why would Harry be the one to have you in a compartment full of girls?" Pansy pointed out.

"Since I like having an excuse to sit on his lap." Tonks cheekily answered causing most of them to roll their eyes.

"Or you just get some sort of enjoyment out of pretending to be a doll?" Su said.

"I can suddenly see why she gets along so well with all of her weird friends..." Fleur admitted causing them all to laugh.

DUELDUELDUEL

When they finally got off the train, Amelia, Sirius, Narcissa, and Mr. Delacour were all waiting for them.

While Susan, Fleur, and Gabrielle went to go give their family members hugs, Sirius greeted him.

"We haven't officially met before, but I'm your godfather." He said cautiously.

"I know." Harry replied.

Since he didn't feel ready to hug him as it appeared Sirius wanted to, he stuck out his hand and Sirius shook it with a rapidly forming smile.

"I know that I haven't exactly been there for you and you may hate me by now but I'd really like for us to get acquainted." Sirius told him.

"I suppose that would be fine." He agreed, not entirely sure just what to say.

"Aren't you going to greet your mother?" He heard Narcissa say.

Looking over at her, he then noticed Draco standing nearby, looking even more stoic and upset than usual. "How could you put my father in prison?" He demanded of her as a way of greeting.

"It's like I told you in my letters, it was necessary, he was a very bad man and was a very bad example for you." She countered.

"Father was far greater than you'll ever be." He spat. Draco then began cursing profusely at her, causing several parents nearby to cover their little kids' ears.

"That's no way to treat me Draco." She said primly.

"I don't care, you're nothing to me!" Draco yelled.

She sighed and said, "I know you are upset now, but in time I hope you'll understand."

"Once father gets out of prison, he's going to make you pay." Draco told her.

"Your father won't be getting out of prison, not this time, you're just going to have to make do without him." She said.

He let another stream of profanities loose.

"Do I need to put you in time out?" She asked him.

"You wouldn't dare give me such a childish punishment, father wouldn't let you punish me." Draco answered.

"Your father isn't here but I'm still your mother and I'm going to be doing things differently now that he isn't around. You need to learn how to better behave yourself." Narcissa said.

Without another word, she cast a spell on him causing him to turn into a newt.

Picking him up, she put him into a small box, making sure that he had some air holes.

"It should bother me that I had to turn him into a newt, but he really did deserve it. Hopefully as an animal he'll manage to calm down." She informed them all before looking at them, "And I'm also sorry for my son's behavior."

"Don't be, we deal with it all the time." Su said.

"That makes it worse. Hopefully I can teach him to be better, I only hope I'm not too late. His father left a deep impression on him." She said with a sigh.

Harry expected them to return to Amelia's house but apparently Narcissa had decided to invite them to her house as there was a lot more room.

As he entered the house he couldn't help but stare in awe at just how huge it was, if ever there was a mansion this was it, the entryway alone was easily the size of the entire Dursley's house at Privet Drive.

"It sure is huge." Gabrielle admitted as she also looked around.

"It's entirely pointless having such a huge house all to myself." Narcissa said, "Over 100 rooms. It used to be much smaller but Lucius kept adding on more and more to it, like we really needed to when there was only 3 of us living in it. It has also been a nightmare keeping it all clean, especially since we lost our house elf. I've been having to hire servants to do it and they don't do it nearly as well or quickly."

"I can see why Dobby didn't like living here." Su said before she realized that what she had said was actually an insult.

"It's all right, I'm in full agreement with the sentiment." Narcissa agreed, "I'm ashamed to say I never really treated the little elf very kindly either. I have a lot to atone for."

"You've already done a lot." Sirius answered, giving Narcissa a kiss.

"Well you can all simply find a bedroom you like. As you can see there should be more than enough for everybody to have their own." Narcissa recommended.

They all hurried to find one while Narcissa went to go turn Draco back into a human and see if he was ready to behave himself.

As he was putting away his stuff however, having already picked out a bedroom, he heard a knock on the door and Tonks entered.

"You already getting our room ready?" She asked.

"Our?" He asked.

"Of course, the room and bed is big enough to share." She concluded.

"Hah hah very funny but I'm sure that nobody would appreciate that, especially Amelia." He pointed out.

She pretended to pout, "If you were older I might actually still consider it."

As Tonks was constantly teasing him in this way he couldn't always be sure just when she was being serious and when she was kidding or not but he still got the impression that she rather liked him regardless, and in truth so did he. He would miss her when she finally had to end her mission in protecting him, and what with Lucius Malfoy now in prison, Sirius Black declared innocent, Pettigrew dead, and Dumbledore no longer his magical guardian he still worried that that time would be soon. All that she had left to do now was find out what Dumbledore was planning and that might not be enough to give reason for her to stay long term.

"I'm going to miss you." He said without realizing it.

"What are you talking about? I'm not going anywhere." She said, tilting her head.

"When your mission finishes." He clarified.

She frowned and said, "Well Amelia asked me if I thought it would be worth it for me to stay and I told her yes. I don't know what Dumbledore is up to but he's been very, very secretive and my gut tells me it's something really bad. He's been using the portraits and suits of armor to watch everything I do so it has been slow going. The Weasley twins recently gave me a magic map of Hogwarts that details a lot of the school, its secret passageways and stuff as well as the people inside it and where they are currently located."

She pulled out a map and he stared at it, amazed that such a map even existed.

Currently there were only a dozen dots of people inside the castle as it was the Christmas holidays but Dumbledore was still there, currently in his office.

"He mainly stays in his office but a lot of the time he simply disappears off the map, which would mean he is either in an area that the map doesn't know about, or he's phoenix traveling to wherever he keeps going to."

Harry had some mixed feelings about this, as he wanted her to find out what Dumbledore was up to, but he also wanted her to stay.

"Could you maybe show me what you really look like?" He asked of her.

"I don't normally do so, but I guess I could for you." She replied with a fond look.

He watched as she changed from the Atlantean girl as she got taller, her hips narrowed, and her bust got smaller.

In addition her skin turned white, but her hair stayed about the same length, staying just below her butt even though it was now black.

As he gazed into her now turquoise eyes, she asked, "What do you think?"

"You look beautiful Tonks." He declared.

She blushed but argued, "I'm really just plain and average but thank you anyway Harry. I prefer to take on a better looking form except when I need to look otherwise for a mission."

"I still think you look good." He insisted.

In response, she gave him a kiss on the lips.

"We weren't in a romance lesson and you didn't have to maintain your cover." He reminded her.

She grinned and said, "I know, I just wanted to kiss you. Sometimes I kiss you just because I like you."

After returning back to her Atlantean form, she got up and left, leaving him alone with his thoughts.

DUELDUELDUEL

During the holidays most of them had a good time with the exception of Draco, who stayed in his room the entire time sulking.

Over that time however, Harry got to know Sirius and he grudgingly realized that he liked him, even though Sirius appeared to be trying extra hard to impress him.

That seemed to pale in comparison to his efforts to impress Amelia.

Amelia still seemed to be rather hesitant towards him but he could see things were steadily improving, especially since he had caught them kissing on Christmas eve.

For Christmas itself Sirius got her a diamond the size of a small fruit, which she insisted was way too much.

She privately confided to him later that she was planning to sell it and donate the proceeds to charity. He'd just have to deal with that.

Of course, he also got a ridiculously expensive and unnecessary gift as he opened up his present from him to find a Firebolt.

While it was a fantastic gift, he thought that since he would only use it for recreational purposes it wouldn't be as valuable to him as it would for an actual Quidditch player.

Thus later on, he decided to go talk with Susan in private in her room.

As he brought in the Firebolt with him, she couldn't help looking at it again.

"I can't believe that Sirius got you this." She tried to refrain from gushing as she examined the handle.

"Neither can I, and honestly I think it's kind of a waste since I doubt I'll get too much use out of it." He said.

"You still like to fly occasionally." She pointed out.

"I figure that an actual Quidditch player could use it more." He insisted, "Which is why I'd like to offer to swap brooms with you."

She looked at him in shock as she said, "Are you sure Harry? This is the best broom ever, and you're giving it to me? What will Sirius say?"

"I just want to help you and your team out," He told her, "and Sirius will just have to learn to live with it. I appreciate the gesture, but he should have looked into what I liked and do for my hobbies before getting me something."

"You do realize that I'll love you forever for giving me this right?" She asked.

"I had a pretty good idea." He answered, grinning.

She gave him a huge kiss on the lips and he quickly began responding back.

Soon they were making out on her bed, and in the process he accidentally touched her bum.

Quickly drawing his hand away, he apologized.

"It's all right Harry, you could have kept it there if you wanted." She told him.

"I, uh, I'll think about it." He said unsurely. The offer was incredibly tempting, Susan had an amazing bum that most people ignored in favour of what was on top, but he was hesitant to take that step forward.

She shrugged her shoulders and leaned in and went back to kissing him.

DUELDUELDUEL

He also noticed that Amelia and Narcissa seemed to be getting along, as they were usually found in some room plotting.

On Christmas day, after enjoying the many festivities Narcissa finally agreed to take Draco to see his father in Azkaban.

She opted to stay with the guards however as she really didn't want to see him and she was sure that Lucius didn't want to see her, leaving Draco to meet with him alone.

After slipping the guard assigned to watch him while he was there a few galleons to leave him alone while he talked with his father, Draco went up to the bars of his father's cell.

"Hello father." Draco said.

As his father got up to speak with him, he noticed that the man had never looked worse. His hair was unkempt and he was starting to grow a beard, his clothes looked worn and dirty, and his face looked gaunt.

"Draco." His father said as he tried to straighten himself out.

"What have they done to you father?" Draco asked in anger, "I'll get them all fired and get you out of this ghastly place."

No Draco, you would only get yourself caught." His father claimed.

"I can do it, though." Draco insisted, "You shouldn't be in here."

It bothered him that his father now appeared so weak and helpless, and he would make sure that as a Malfoy he was restored to his rightful place.

"Your mother did too well in taking me down, I'm told that the evidence is too strong, and she's taken control of most of my finances." The older blond informed him.

"What about the secret and overseas accounts?" Draco asked.

"She somehow managed to find out about those too." His father shook his head.

"I'll break you out of here then, surely you must have people I can contact?" Draco said, getting desperate.

"Your mother has already started working with that Mudblood loving Bones to get them thrown in prison as well, I'm told that most of them are having to go into hiding now." Lucius said.

"Surely there must be something we can do father?" Draco said.

Lucius seemed to pause for a second before he said, "There is. One person who can still return us to our former glory and beyond. He can break me and everyone else out of prison and get revenge on those who have wronged us."

"Who is it father? I'll contact him," Draco insisted.

"I'm afraid you'll have to find him first." His father explained, "I'm talking about the Dark Lord."

"He's dead though father," Draco stated.

"He's still alive, just in hiding." Lucius confirmed, "I've held back on trying to find him as I felt that we could conquer magical Britain on our own but now we need his help. I've heard reports that he might be in Albania. I need you to contact Goyle, he's in hiding but I'm betting that he's at the Dumonton house. Make sure that you aren't followed or suspected, especially by your mother."

"I will father, I won't let you down." Draco told him earnestly.

"Good boy, you really are a Malfoy." His father praised.

As he left his father alone, he promised himself that his mother and everyone else would pay for this. He would bring back the Dark Lord and he would break his father out of prison. The Malfoy's weren't finished yet.

Author's Note: Another big chapter and a lot happened. The Sirius/Narissa and Sirius/Amelia relationships were gone through rather quickly, as while they still need to be there, the main focus really is on and should be on Harry and his relationships. I'm really happy with how it is all turning out though.


	28. Love and Consequences

Chapter 28

Love and Consequences

Narcissa had a real quandary on her hands and only had a few hours to make a decision before her decision would be made for her. She still couldn't seem to decide what to do however.

She had agreed to take Draco to see his father for Christmas because first of all she felt like it was the right thing to do, Draco should be allowed to see his father on Christmas even if he was a criminal.

She also knew, however, that if she had come with him to see him, Draco would not have been nearly so talkative nor would she have learned just what Lucius was up to.

After knowing Lucius for so many years, she knew that he was never the type of person to give up, he had a plan in mind to get himself out of prison and she wanted to find out what. Her previous attempts to find out what or how he was still communicating with his men had proven fruitless.

However, Lucius' one major weakness had always been his son, which admittedly had always been hers as well. She had hoped that Lucius would tell whatever plan he had to him.

After telling Draco that she simply did not want to see his father, Draco proceeded on alone or so he thought.

She had borrowed Harry's invisibility cloak, not telling him just what it was she needed it for, and managed to smuggle it into the prison.

After putting it on, she had proceeded secretly with her son to where his father was.

She watched the whole thing, Draco bribing the guard, to Draco's offer to help his father escape, it had all been so sickening to her, just how eager Draco was to break laws and make any sacrifice to break his father out.

She had hoped that his devotion to his father hadn't been that deep, but that appeared to be false. Her dream of reforming Draco seemed to have already failed. All she could hope now was avoid Draco going to prison.

At least she knew just what Lucius wanted him to do, and it was not something that would easily lead to him being caught and thrown in prison as she had feared.

Bringing back the Dark Lord was one she hadn't been expecting however. It meant that Lucius was getting desperate.

More disconcerting than that however was Lucius trying to involve his son in such a dangerous venture. She knew enough about the Dark Lord that he was the type to probably kill her son after he had served all of his purposes. Draco was only a boy and highly impressionable and she feared just what the Dark Lord might do to him.

In addition, she suspected that Draco wasn't Lucius' only choice to relay his plan and if she stopped Draco then he would only somehow find another way.

Yet as she sat there she realized that there was no easy answer as to what to do. The most obvious answer was simply stop Draco immediately before he had had a chance to contact Goyle.

However if she did so, she felt strongly that Draco would only resent her all the more and try some other way to get his father out of prison, something that he could go to prison himself for.

She also couldn't simply keep him locked up to prevent him from doing anything illegal, as that would of course be illegal in and of itself, and would totally defeat the point.

Nor could she simply let him get away with what he was planning.

That left some sort of spell that would prevent him from ever being able to commit any crimes.

A forced unbreakable vow would likely be broken. She couldn't bring herself to ever imperious him or some other way to bind his will. If she Obliviated him however that might work. She might have to Obliviate a great deal though, perhaps even the memory of his father altogether.

What kind of mother would she be to take away her son's treasured memories of his father?

She decided to give him one last chance.

Opening his bedroom door, she found him already writing the letter he was intending to send to Goyle.

"How dare you come into my bedroom without permission?" Draco raged as he tried desperately to hide the letter.

"I know, Draco." She confessed, "I overheard your conversation with your father and I know what you two are planning."

"You had no right woman, father is a great man and if you won't help him, then I will!" Draco answered.

"Would you really risk prison or even your own life?" Narcissa asked incredulously.

"I would do anything to free father, even kill if I have to." Draco declared.

As she studied the young man, and just how depraved he had already become at such a young age, she began to cry, cry for the son that she had apparently already lost.

"If you insist on going through with this then I'll have to tell Amelia that you are aiding and abetting criminals, this could mean prison time in the juvenile department." She announced, "Is that really what you want?"

"You can't stop me!" Draco yelled.

"Then you leave me little choice Draco, this is for your own good, I can't bear to be the one responsible for putting you in prison or have you losing your soul over your father's mistakes. Obliviate!"

She felt guilty as her spell hit, yet she knew that it was necessary. If she had to remove the poison that was the near brainwashing that his father had sown for him in order to save him, then so be it.

Searching around in his mind, she locked away a large portions of memories of his father along with much that he had taught him that could only be used for evil. Some things could not be so easily detached from his active mind without risking harming him but she did her best while still trying to keep intact at least some memory of his father. Most of all she made sure he had no memories whatsoever of ever plotting to try and break his father out of prison.

Hopefully she had done a good enough job that he might abandon any further such thoughts and hopefully still become the man that she knew that he could be.

After finally being satisfied, she left a memory of him reading a book during the time she was modifying his memory.

Taking Draco's unfinished letter to Goyle with her, she left his room and shut the door.

Retiring to her own room, she wept bitterly at what she had been forced to do.

Over the rest of the Christmas holiday, she monitored Draco, but he seemed to be totally unaware that memories of his father had been taken from him, and seemed to be much better because of it.

At least he seemed to have given up with his plans for breaking his father out and instead was much nicer to her as he no longer had any reason to be mad at her.

While everyone commented that Draco was feeling better, she told them that he was only trying to turn over a new leaf and be better, to which they tried being nicer in turn.

Draco was not instantly a perfect angel, but he also wasn't as bad as he had been before. She had high hopes that he still become a decent human being.

DUELDUELDUEL

After having seen the children off to Hogwarts again, Amelia had finally decided to stay longer at Malfoy Manor as Narcissa had invited her to.

She tried to tell herself that it was actually for convenience sake as both she and Narcissa had been kept busy as they worked to find more and more evidence against former death eaters and other criminals.

As for Goyle, they managed to capture him at his hideout.

Amelia also dispatched a few Aurors to try and track down Voldemort in Albania where he was rumored to be.

It turned out that Malfoy Manor had ended up being a treasure trove of evidence as Lucius had kept meticulous records as he ran an illegal empire.

Such documents she never could have gotten on her own, nor could anyone else have for that manner. They were extremely well hidden and required spells that she never would have known about.

Narcissa however had somehow learned all this from spying on her former husband or at least so she said. She suspected that it wasn't as simple as that but as long as it wasn't illegal she really didn't care how she did it.

Working with her had led to a grudging partnership and even possible friendship as she was forced to conclude that the real Narcissa was not at all like she had acted.

She had not had to give custody over to her, nor convince her to still try and mend things with Sirius, help her with fighting crime, or the many others things that she did.

Narcissa had even told her of her grand plans for working with Squibs and Muggleborns to get involved with Muggle manufacturing and improve the stagnant wizard economy.

As this actually did seem like a really good idea, she offered her full support in the Wizengamot, and Narcissa had been more than happy to lend hers in many different laws that she had wanted passed concerning improving the prison and magical law enforcement, in addition to Muggle rights.

In response she had warmed considerably to the blonde former Slytherin and she had decided to encourage Sirius to maintain a relationship with Narcissa in addition to her own with him.

She was no fool, as such a position would allow her to keep an eye on Narcissa and help encourage their partnership, but also she felt obligated after the many concessions Narcissa had made for her and the fact that she was carrying Sirius' child.

Her own relationship with Sirius on the other hand had improved steadily, and since Narcissa seemed to want her to continue it, she had learned to deal with sharing him as they mostly just traded off. Her one night and Narcissa the other. After all, if Susan could share Harry with five other girls, she could certainly share with just one.

DUELDUELDUEL

One night later in the school year, Harry was only just finishing up some homework late at night when Gabrielle came into his room.

"I had a bad dream." She confessed.

"You want to talk about it?" He asked.

She shook her head and said, "I was wondering if we could just cuddle."

"All right," He agreed easily, "let's use my bed."

She got underneath the covers with him and he wrapped his arms around her so they could cuddle.

"This is nice." Gabrielle concluded as she began to relax into him.

He'd cuddled plenty of times before, just not ever alone in his bed.

After a few minutes of simply laying there in silence, she finally said, "I love you Harry."

"I love you too." He answered without hesitation, surprising himself.

Yet it wasn't really too much of a surprise as he had recently decided that he really did love all the girls and had started telling them I love you back.

"Mmm, it feels so good to hear you say that." Gabrielle confessed with a warm smile as she snuggled even tighter into him.

This had the rather unfortunate result of a certain part of his anatomy to get bigger and since he was currently facing directly into her, it was now pressing right into her butt.

"Sorry." He tried to apologize, perfectly aware that she must be able to feel it by now.

"It's okay, to be honest I've been rather curious just how big it was. If what I feel pressing against me is any indication I shouldn't be disappointed." She answered before turning around, "Is that any better?"

Since her chest was now pressing directly into his, which had admittedly grown significantly since last summer, this was of little help.

"Sorry Gabrielle, I guess you're just too sexy no matter which way you turn." He concluded with a badly concealed grin.

She laughed and said, "Well, I guess I can't fault you for that."

How did I ever get so lucky? He thought as he continued to hug Gabrielle. She was just so beautiful, all the girls were, both on the inside and outside.

While he knew that if he had asked any one of the girls by now to go even further physically in their relationship, they would let him - although he knew most of them weren't really quite ready and the ones that were he felt he should wait on as he himself really wasn't ready.

He'd given his word to Amelia that he would go into things completely ready, with no doubts in his mind, and he just hadn't reached that point yet.

"Can I just sleep with you here?" Gabrielle asked, causing him to blush, especially after what he'd been thinking about.

"Sure I guess if you really want to." he admitted.

Allowing himself to relax and breathing in the wonderful scent of Gabrielle's shampoo, he drifted off to sleep with her.

The next morning he awoke to find himself with Gabrielle still wrapped around him, although he had somehow managed to get his hand onto her bum.

Before she woke up and noticed, he carefully slid his hand up to a safer spot and instead allowed himself just to enjoy having her so close to him.

Yet it was only for a few minutes until he noticed Su come into the room.

She seemed to take in the sight with a shocked expression on her face before whispering quietly to him so as not to wake Gabrielle up, "Did you...?"

Blushing, he whispered back quickly, "No, she just had a nightmare and ended up sleeping here. Nothing actually happened."

She nodded and instead of leaving or saying anything further, she went around his bed and got in on the other side of him.

"Good morning, by the way." She whispered with an mischievous little smile as she snuggled into his other side.

Now surrounded by two different girls in his bed, he realized that this was already shaping up to be a fine morning.

"I love you, Su." He told her.

"I love you too Harry." She replied, grinning.

Eventually Gabrielle woke up and both she and Su returned to their room to get ready. He did the same, and after waiting for the two girls to finish, they headed down to breakfast as evidently the other 4 girls had already left by then.

On the way there however, they ran into Peeves.

"Yipppppeeeee!" Peeves yelled in a very gleeful tone.

"Hello Peeves." Su said. "You seem extra happy today."

"Dumby finally agreed to allow ickle firsties to join House Peeves!" He announced.

"How did you manage that?" Harry asked.

"I still gots his Sorting Hat! So I said, no House Peeves, no Hat! Nobody's getting Sorted nowheres." Peeves replied smugly, brandishing the Sorting Hat, which he was still wearing.

"Shouldn't you give it back to Dumby then?" Su asked.

"This hat is mine now, I'm one of the Founder's and this is the Founder's hat." Peeves claimed as he threw the hat into the air, "I'll give it back to him before next year's Sorting."

"How is Flopsy doing, coming with you on all of your adventures?" Harry asked.

"Flopsy likes coming with Peevesy to play pranks on students and teachers, much more fun than stuffy old Professor Head's office." Peeves answered.

This was a question he had wondered for awhile but since the Sorting Hat seemed to be happy, he supposed that it was alright, even if it was a rather odd partnership between the poltergeist and the headwear.

Moving on to breakfast, they found the other girls currently sitting at the House Peeves table eating.

"We just talked to Peeves and he said that Dumbledore agreed to allow new students to join House Peeves." Su informed them all.

"Darn it." Fleur said, sounding unhappy with this news.

"Why are you so unhappy Fleur?" Susan asked.

"Well I kind of liked having an entire Common Room and House to ourselves." She confessed, "Besides that, I was kind of hoping we could do stuff when we were older and not be disturbed."

"Just what kind of stuff were you thinking?" Tonks teased.

Fleur blushed, but refused to look away, "I think you know very well what I mean."

"Not as well as I'd like..." Tonks replied as she then looked at Harry. "I'd just need a decent partner."

"I swear you're too much for Harry." Susan claimed, "Poor Harry is going to either have a heart attack or have you in his bed by year's end at this rate."

"Gabrielle already beat you to it last night." Su answered.

Immediately there was several stunned reactions, Pansy spewed milk out of her mouth, Susan nearly fell out of her chair and Tonks only sat there grinning.

"You didn't!" Susan asked in complete shock.

"We only slept, that's it!" Gabrielle insisted.

"Gabrielle had a nightmare and couldn't sleep so I let her sleep in my bed with me." Harry answered, extremely grateful that Su had not caught him while he was still asleep and touching Gabrielle's bum.

"So does this mean we can start sharing your bed with you to sleep?" Pansy asked.

"Nobody is going to be doing that, it was just a one time thing." Harry reassured them all.

"I've got to say I love you Harry, getting offers like that and deciding to turn them down." Tonks laughed.

He gave her a glare as she really wasn't helping.

"We already discussed this," He told them all, "and all agreed we needed to wait a few years so don't worry Pansy, you won't be missing out on anything."

"That was before we all realized we love you and now that we do, shouldn't we try and take things a bit further now as a way to express it?" Fleur pointed out.

He shook his head, but he his argument was having some serious holes blown in it, so he decided to bring out a more serious reason. "I don't need anything more than to know that you love me. Besides I'm not sure if I could help myself if I was in that situation much more, it was already pretty tempting just last night and this morning."

Tonks looked at him with what appeared to be respect.

"You know Harry, I thought that I was going to be keeping you in line but it appears you keep the rest of us in line." She told him.

He sighed and continued, "I think you all forget sometimes that I have a say as well in just what we do. I know some of you are ready for more, but that doesn't mean that I am. I love you all but I'm not going to be doing anything I know I'm not personally ready for."

The girls all now looked guilty.

"We're sorry if we're pushing you, Harry." Susan apologized.

"I think we can all do a lot better, not just in how far we take our relationship but everything." Fleur concluded.

"It's all right, I usually don't mind, but some things I have to be firm on." He answered.

"We'll wait until you are ready then." Pansy said, "I'm not really ready either, and it bother me to feel like you are being pressured by us in anything. I went through it far too much at home growing up."

"Thanks for understanding." He said gratefully.

DUELDUELDUEL

Three months after their conversation, Sirius and Amelia were currently on one of their dates at a Muggle restaurant.

"Amelia, do you love me?" Sirius asked her.

"You should already know by now that I really do love you Sirius." Amelia answered.

Indeed this was true, over time their relationship had grown and she had truly fallen in love with him. Despite everything that had happened, despite so many things that could have easily split them apart, they had somehow managed to come back to each other and by then she had no excuses left.

She allowed herself to simply give in and love him, and they had finally confessed their love for one another only a month before.

As a result they had ended up consummating that love with their very first time together. It had been wild and incredible, and had left her wanting more, which he had proceeded to do so many times over.

As she sat thinking, Sirius still hadn't answered until just then, "I'm crazy about you Amelia, I really don't know what I would do without you, and that scares me."

"Why should it scare you?" She asked.

"Since I still have Narcissa, who I also can't give up, I love her now too, which makes things so much harder. Narcissa has been great and supportive of me in my relationship with you, she really didn't have to do that but she has. The thing is I asked Narcissa to marry me a couple of nights ago, and then she finally said yes this morning." Sirius confessed.

"To be honest Sirius, Narcissa already came to me and asked for my permission before she said yes to you." Amelia answered, "That's the reason she took so long in answering."

"I had no idea." Sirius said flabbergasted.

"She wanted to make sure I was okay with it and I really am, we both knew where this is going to go, you'll be marrying both of us." Amelia told him.

Sirius seemed to be stunned but using his Gryffindor courage he asked, "Then would you be willing to marry me as well?"

"Yes Sirius, I will." She said, giving him a kiss.

Sirius looked like he was on cloud nine as he gave a monumentally huge grin.

After sitting back to really savor the moment, Amelia announced, "However I think it would only be fair that if me and Narcissa are going to share, we are really going to need to share, and she agrees with me. So that means starting to take both of us out on dates, and also marry us at the same time so that we won't have to worry about first wife status and instead share that responsibility."

"Would sharing also include...?" Sirius asked tentatively.

She rolled her eyes and said, "Yes Sirius, that includes sex, but you had better even things out in the bedroom or I'm kicking you out of it for the rest of the night."

"Agreed." Sirius answered happily.

She had a pretty good guess just what he was thinking at that moment, probably envisioning his ultimate threesome.

Since she'd already realized that was going to end up happening, she had already had plenty of time to get used to the idea, and admittedly it was a surprising turn on for her.

"I love you Amelia." Sirius said.

"I love you Sirius." She answered back.

DUELDUELDUEL

Had Sirius still been in his right mind and not thinking about marriage and sex, he would have thought that he couldn't possibly be that lucky. Whenever something really good came into his life, it only meant trouble was right around the corner.

He would have been absolutely correct.

DUELDUELDUEL

Zesper Antinov had been one of the Aurors assigned to try and track down the Dark Lord.

Of course, no one knew that he used to be a Death Eater himself.

He had been one of the lucky ones, one that had never been caught and never been suspected, and ever since the Dark Lord's downfall he had kept his identity a secret, staying within the Auror force and gained everyone's trust.

During the war he used to secretly tip off the Death Eater's on any incoming attacks on their forces from the Ministry but after wards he had padded his finances with money that Lucius Malfoy supplied him with to keep him aware of any movement against him or his criminal organization.

He had been caught entirely unaware of Malfoy's arrest as Madame Bones had kept it a secret until the very last minute.

Now his extra income was gone and he had numerous debts to pay off.

When he heard of Goyle's arrest, it was yet another blow to him, as it meant that Madame Bones was getting more and more cautious in information getting out. Whether she suspected a leak or not he wasn't sure but he wanted to take advantage while he still could.

Malfoy managed to get word to him, and promise to pay off his debts in exchange for getting himself on the Auror task force sent to locate the Dark Lord in Albania, and then after doing so, do whatever he needed to assist the Dark Lord.

It was only a matter of time before he found him.

DUELDUELDUEL

Having heard about Amelia's engagement to Sirius yesterday, Harry had to admit that he was now really worried about Susan and how she felt about the whole thing.

She said she was fine but he knew better.

Thus he went and found her in the Peeves Common Room currently doing homework.

"Could we talk Susan?" He asked.

"Not now Harry, I've still got homework to do." Susan declared without looking up.

"It can wait." He announced.

Finally she looked up and said, "Alright."

Looking at the other girls, also in the Common Room, he gestured for them to go somewhere more private.

Leading her into his room and shutting the door, he said, "I have to confess that I'm a little worried about you Susan."

"I already told you I'm fine." She tried to insist.

"I can already tell that you aren't actually fine." He observed.

She sighed, "Well maybe I am a little worried and upset."

"I saw the homework you were doing, that essay for Professor Binns isn't due for another week and it was already twice as long as it needed to be, so either you have suddenly found a new appreciation for the goblin war of 1262, or you've been burying yourself in homework so you won't have to deal with how you feel." He concluded.

"How would you know how I feel?" She answered somewhat angrily.

"You're right, I don't, but I do know you, and I know that you are currently suffering." He admitted.

"If you really want to know how I feel, use Legilimency on me." She said.

He looked at her for a moment longer, finding her completely serious, before doing as she requested. As he entered her mind, having gotten quite good at Legilimency, he managed to find her recent thoughts and emotions on the subject.

She did not resist, allowing him to find it all.

He soon realized that she was just scared, scared for her aunt, and scared for how she would be treated by her new husband. Susan had been raised solely by Amelia and because of that they shared a very deep connection. For most of her life it had only been the two of them, and then he had gotten betrothed to her and it then included him, and then the other girls as well, and while it had been difficult, it had still been okay with her as she had gotten to know him and the girls and actually wanted her life and her family to include them.

Sirius and Narcissa were different however because she didn't really know them and she was worried about how her aunt would be treated and how she would then be treated by her as she now had a new husband and sister wife. Perhaps she might lose her.

Finally pulling away, and coming out of her mind, she finally asked, "Do you get it now?"

He gave her a huge hug, not entirely sure what to say as he gathered up his thoughts.

"Your aunt would never forget about you, I know that. She loves you, and just because she is getting married doesn't mean that will ever change." He finally said.

"It's still hard." She confessed, as she hugged tightly back with tears now running down her cheeks.

"I love you, but I have to share my love with each of the other girls as I love them as well, yet do you think that means that I love you any less?" He asked.

"Well no, but I know you, and I know them." Susan countered.

"You may not really know Sirius or Narcissa, but you know your Aunt Amelia and you know she would never allow anyone to get between you two. She would fight a dragon and 100 Dementors for you, and so would I."

"I know." Susan confessed, hugging him back.

DUELDUELDUEL

Dumbledore sat in his office, still stewing over the loss of guardianship over Harry. It was a major setback in that department, something he hadn't planned on and would definitely have its repercussions.

However he now considered it to only give more reason that his plans needed to succeed, as if they did, it would be of no great consequence.

After last year in getting the Basilisk venom and Hufflepuff's cup, he and Snape had soon realized that the next step in the process was finding a way to make Ariana and Lily's bodies take on the bodies that they had had before they died.

This had actually proven to be rather difficult as Polyjuice potion proved to be too weak and broke down too easily after only an hour.

Next he had tried using blood and hair samples from McGonagall in her Animagus form, hoping that by changing the Polyjuice potion enough using it, that their bodies would stay permanent.

Although he was careful to come up with some cover story so that she wouldn't be suspicious, it proved not to work anyway as an Animagus required the use of their own magic through force of will to achieve any changes.

Since both Lily and Ariana did not actually have any magic or will of their own yet it failed to work.

This had finally forced him to look for something that would initiate transformations even if the subject was dead.

There was only one type of being that he knew of with such a capability: werewolves.

However the problem lay in finding a willing werewolf who would be willing to conduct tests and take samples from them on a frequent basis.

This had been what caused him to go find Lupin and ask him to fill the vacant DADA post, and in return he would provide him with the wolfsbane potion that would allow him to keep his state of mind during his transformations.

Lupin had of course leaped at the opportunity given to him, and did not initially suspect anything when he said that the samples that he took from him were to help make a better potion for him.

Now however, he was starting to get suspicious, but it really was no matter as he already had gotten what he needed from him, and if he really needed to, he could simply fire him.

However as he flame traveled to where Snape was, he found Snape currently looking angry and throwing a few potions bottles around.

"It won't work Dumbledore!" He raged.

"What seems to be the matter Snape?" Dumbledore asked

"Over a decade now we've been at this and it still doesn't work!" Snape roared.

"We've made many recent strides, we can't just simply give up." Dumbledore cautioned.

"I've figured it out, we can make them _look_ like Lily and Ariana, we can make someone else look like them, but we can't just simply bring them back from the dead no matter how hard we try." Snape replied.

"We could still capture their essence, what makes them them, we could even implant memories into them, make them believe that they are Lily and Ariana only not put in any of the negative things, such as when my sister had her outbursts or the bad memories that Lily had of you that caused her to scorn you." Dumbledore suggested.

Snape seemed to think for a moment before saying, "I'm afraid it just wouldn't be the same Dumbledore, it just wouldn't really be Lily."

"We could make an even better Lily, one that will always love you." Dumbledore coaxed.

"I won't do it Dumbledore." Snape insisted.

Dumbledore sighed, he needed Snape or this plan could never succeed.

"Do you really want to just give up Snape after spending this long? I promise you that we will succeed. Not only will you have Lily back, but a Lily that will always love you and make you happy. Let's face it, Lily never loved you when she was alive, were you to actually bring her back from the dead that would not have changed. This Lily will be the Lily of your dreams, you can make her into anyone that you want."

Snape seemed to consider this, and Dumbledore waited for his response. If he could not convince him then he would simply have to force him to do it. There would be nothing stopping him from his plan.

"All right Dumbledore, we'll do things your way." Snape finally agreed.

"Good man, I knew you'd see reason eventually." Dumbledore approved.

After speaking with him for a bit longer, he flamed traveled again, not back to his office, but to another room entirely, one that only he knew about, and had worked very hard to keep that way.

This was the reason why he could never have any Aurors poking around, as he feared that they might find this room, or detect it using any protection spells that they tried to put up.

It was still quite doubtful that they would ever find it, even if they were actually looking for it, but he decided that he simply couldn't take that chance.

What this room represented was the future and the destiny of the Magical World.

While he had hoped that Snape would be able to succeed in developing a spell that really would bring back the real Ariana, as he still held a deep amount of regret over this, but this still would have no effect upon his overall plan, as it had always been focused instead on simple cloning.

Looking out upon the vast room, he turned to numerous shelves lining the walls, all with various hair, skin, and blood samples, collected over recent years from various important magical people from numerous countries, which he had gotten secretly throughout various meetings with them as acting head of the International Confederation of Wizards.

Many were leaders of their magical countries and held a great deal of power, others were simply quite wealthy, but all were collected for one purpose; to make clones of all of them and implant memories of his own choosing so that they would all agree entirely with his way of thinking. He would even make them be forced to obey his will whenever he desired.

Gradually he would replace such leaders that he felt disagreed with the Greater Good and secretly install clones of them.

The real ones he would capture if he could or kill if he must and put them where they couldn't do any more harm until they understood the error of their ways through indoctrination.

It was of course an extreme plan even in his mind but a necessary one for the Greater Good, as leaders and people all with the right way of thinking would lead the Wizarding World in the direction it needed to go.

All injustices, all wars, all everything would be eradicated and instead usher in a new era of peace.

Having switched the Sorcerer's Stone with a piece of rock candy, which admittedly was quite delicious, he had the sorcerer's stone now to allow him to live long enough to make sure this was carried out.

This was not an evil plan he reasoned, as any losses or collateral damage would be nothing compared to the violence and problems that he would be avoiding, and soon everyone would surely come to see that his way of thinking was the best.

He had of course not chosen to show Snape this, as he would no doubt think that it was insane, but only a man of true intellect and vision such as himself truly understood the possibilities or how surprisingly easy it would be to infiltrate and replace magical world leaders.

While he still needed Snape to work on the two test subjects, once that was perfected it wouldn't take long to replicate the results, along with a few additions.

He could not only create a total false identity for each of the clones, but also do things that he couldn't with any ordinary already living person, such as add knowledge of fighting and magical combat skills, or enhanced speed or strength. In essence he could even create an army of super soldiers, even better than their original counterparts.

Looking at the hundreds of samples, he knew that he had a lot of work to do.

DUELDUELDUEL

Author's Note: Super long author's note. First, while toying with the idea of actually bringing Lily back to life after that many years had passed I decided that it would just mess with the laws of science, magic, religion, etc so instead I ultimately decided on cloning, which can actually be done in real life even though very controversial and of course very illegal. Since I like controversial stuff in my story, this was an easy decision for me.

So now you finally know just what Dumbledore's plan is and just why he has been so secretive and protective and makes such rash decisions. It's a plan I can actually see Dumbledore doing but he would not consider himself to be evil in doing so, as in his mind he is doing the right thing, and admittedly he does want to do good and make the world a better place, but unfortunately has some pretty messed up methods to do it.

I find a very strong and interesting parallel however between him and Narcissa in that they both desire great power and want to make the world a better place but are also pushed into difficult situations and walk a fine line between right and wrong. Ultimately however Narcissa has proven to be much better than Dumbledore is. Modifying someone's memory being one of them. Dumbledore obliviates people to stop them from the learning the truth about him or prevent him from doing things he knows are wrong.

Narcissa on the other hand only modified Draco's memory when she saw no other option. She simply loved her son too much to let him ruin his life, so she recognized that Draco had practically been brainwashed by his father and so was forced to remove that negative influence so that Draco could still be saved. Such tactics have also been tried on children in real life that have suffered severe abuse or brainwashing and so without removal of those memories would not be able to function and most if not all was not really the child's fault. As always I love exploring what is truly right and what is wrong in this story, and having Narcissa be forced to make such tough decisions are based on what she personally feels is going to help others and not necessarily herself. She still feels deep remorse.

That is something that Dumbledore I feel never understood even in canon, as he constantly tried doing the right thing but would make sacrifices and allow others to suffer such as Harry so that his aims might be achieved. He also would never listen to anyone else or seek council from others, always believing that he knew what was best for everyone. His plan is only a greater plateau of his already messed up all for the Greater Good logic. Stupid Dumbledore.


	29. Shopping and Dancing

Chapter 29

Shopping and Dancing

Summer had finally come around once again and Harry and the girls had all gotten out for the summer and were back at Amelia's house.

Amelia and Narcissa had decided to go into business together and invest into a company that would make various muggle products using magic.

They had asked Harry, having grown up in the muggle world to teach them about various muggle products and which he thought would be the best to be produced.

They had other sources and people to ask of course, but they were trying to get as many opinions as possible.

Meanwhile the girls were currently lounging around near or in the pool in their bikinis.

"I'm really kind of mad Harry wasn't here to put sunscreen on me." Susan admitted.

"He always has such a cute expression on his face when I ask him to." Pansy said as she couldn't help from giggling.

"I should ask him to pull down my bikini bottom and get my bum and see how he reacts." Tonks suggested.

"No, we already promised him we weren't going to push him into anything." Su reminded.

"I wouldn't be forcing him to, just going to give him the opportunity." Tonks countered.

"I think that might be a bit much," Susan admitted. "Although I am kind of eager to see if he wants to go lingerie and clothes shopping with us. We have to go anyway to get dresses for the wedding."

"More like you just want to show off how big your breasts have gotten to him." Gabrielle guessed.

Susan blushed, and replied: "All right so maybe I do, but I'd guess the reason you knew that was because you were planning to do the exact same thing."

It was now Gabrielle's turn to blush and said shamelessly. "I might as well benefit from them."

"I don't understand how you've both grown so fast," Pansy commented. "Mine already stopped growing months ago. I might be a small C but that's about it."

"I'm totally flat chested and you don't hear me complaining," Su remarked. "Besides you've got an incredibly beautiful body Pansy, you have nothing to complain about."

At that moment, Harry came out to the pool.

"Hey girls what did I miss?" He asked.

"We were just wondering if you wanted to go clothes shopping with us?" Tonks asked.

He seemed a bit nervous, probably remembering last year when they had gone clothes shopping, but this time he asked, "Would you all like me to go?"

"Absolutely Harry," Fleur said, "we all want to show off, and let you decide what would look best on us. That way you get to see us wearing them the rest of the year."

"I suppose I would like to come for that," he answered truthfully.

"I could have told you he couldn't help himself," Gabrielle said, grinning.

"You can look away if you feel uncomfortable," recommended Susan gently to him.

He cheekily said, "what makes you think I would ever want to look away from any of you?"

This caused Tonks to start laughing.

"I'm glad that you said that, because we're making sure you get some new clothes too," Susan reminded him.

"Now that is something I'm definitely looking forward to," Fleur admitted.

DUELDUELDE

At the clothing store, Madame Malkins asked what they would like.

"We'd like to pick out clothes and then get our measurements," Susan announced.

"Very well," Madame Malkins agreed.

As Harry went with the girls to go pick out clothes, Susan looked through bras and picked out a light blue one.

"What do you think Harry?" She asked.

As Harry looked at it, he wasn't entirely all that savvy when it came to those things but it looked awfully small so he said, "Um I don't think it would fit you Susan."

"Don't worry Harry, in the magical world most clothes can be magically modified so that the size matches you perfectly. I'd bet as a guy you probably don't have that big of a problem, but for women we tend to have a few more curves that we are trying either to show off or hide, etc."

He only nodded before admitting:

"Then I like the color."

After helping the girls pick out bras and matching panties, Madame Malkins went with each of the girls into the changing room to get them fitted and magically tailored.

As Susan was first, she then came out in her light blue bra and matching panties, causing him to gulp.

He had of course seen Susan wearing her bikini quite often which was one reason why he had finally decided it wasn't that big a deal with going shopping with them, but it still caused certain thoughts to run through him.

He had the unfortunate or fortunate problem depending on how you looked at it in being betrothed to 5 very sexy girls and they each were becoming more and more happy to show off their bodies to him.

"What size is it?" Amelia asked as Susan shamelessly modeled for them.

"It's a 32 E cup," she answered, "it seems to fit quite nicely too, my old ones were getting a bit snug."

"I wouldn't be surprised if you ended up passing me up," Amelia answered.

"I hope so actually, I rather like them big," Susan said, lifting them up and winking over at him.

He gulped. She knew that he couldn't help but stare at them, and was quite happy that he was.

Having already had this explained to him, an E cup was evidently not ridiculously huge, but they still seemed plenty big to him, and the way Susan was acting, it was easy to get distracted.

Next up was Fleur who was placed at a 30F, just as big as Susan's as far as he could tell. She also took the opportunity to make sure he paid special attention to her as well.

Pansy ended up being a 28C, Su a 26A, and Gabrielle a 26DD each more than happy to show off their assets to him.

Author's Note: Yes I got the sizes believable and not too out there.

After that they started picking out other clothes, in particular the bridesmaid dresses for the upcoming wedding.

Needless to say it was an exhausting affair, as the girls modeled for him in far more outfits than they would ever need.

Personally he couldn't see why they needed to try on 100 outfits to buy only a couple of them. Couldn't they have narrowed it down more?

For example if Pansy really thought she looked fat in a certain dress, why take the time to come out of the dressing room and ask him? She should have just taken the dress off even though she still looked great in it.

He replied by saying: "If you look fat in that dress, then you look really good fat."

She grinned and needless to say she got the dress.

Once the dresses had been picked out, the girls very excitedly helped him pick out clothes for himself, and he was soon deluged with different outfits they wanted him to try on.

At first he simply went along with it, but after trying on what seemed to be the one thousandth pair of pants, he insisted that they were done.

The girls however had by that point narrowed it down and he bought several new outfits along with the dress robes that they selected for him to wear at the wedding.

After buying all their new clothes they went and got a few more things such as decorations for Malfoy Manor where the wedding would be held.

By the time they got home, Harry was so exhausted he fell asleep immediately, having had no idea that shopping could be so tiring.

DUELDUELDE

The next day Harry had been currently talking with Fleur and Gabrielle about the wedding of their aunt back in France when Narcissa interrupted them.

"Harry I was wondering if maybe I could speak with you in private for a moment," she said.

"Sure," he agreed, following her into another room.

"I already had this conversation with Susan but I felt that it would be important to have it with you," she stated.

"Okay," he replied.

"I know that things might be a little awkward between us, what with me marrying Sirius along with Amelia, and in addition to everything else I put you through," she stated.

"It's all right, I understand," he tried to say.

"I don't want to interfere with anything you already have with Amelia, as I would guess that you value her highly," she said.

"That would be correct," he answered, "in truth she's like the mother I never had."

"Then I wouldn't want to change that," Narcissa told him, "I've gained a lot of respect for her and I want you to know that I would never jeopardize that relationship that you have."

As if in direct answer to his thoughts she said, "of course I didn't always realize that. It was never my intention to take you away from a loving family. I had only heard about what happened living with your muggle relatives. I couldn't be sure just where you were at the time, but I figured I could definitely be a better parent than your muggle relatives ever were."

He really wasn't sure what to say, as he realized that if Amelia hadn't taken custody of him when she did, he likely would be with Narcissa right now, and he might well regard her as a mother figure and be happy with her. From what he knew about her, she seemed at least way better than the Dursleys had been.

"From what I had heard of you, I saw in you everything that I wish my real son was, strong, brave, hardworking, yet also loving and kind. I guess I figured that if I adopted you that you would sort of rub off on Draco," Narcissa told him.

Harry sighed and said, "Doubtful but I can't blame you for wanting to try."

Well it appears to be working at least somewhat, he's gotten a bit better from what I've noticed even if all he still does is mope around in his bedroom," Narcissa said.

"I think there just might still be hope for him yet," Harry answered, not sure if this was actually possible but also wanting to support Narcissa in her efforts.

"I hope so too, although I have definitely promised that I'll rectify the mistakes that I've made with my next child," Narcissa confessed.

She put her hand on her now large belly, which they had already found out would be a girl.

"Would you like to feel her?" She asked.

He nodded and he gently put a hand on her belly.

"Can you feel her kick?" She then asked.

He nodded, as he could feel the movement that her baby was making.

"I already love my baby," she announced proudly, "she's going to be such a good little girl, I know it."

"I'm sure that you and Sirius will be wonderful parents," he observed.

"Thank you, Harry, that means a lot coming from you," she said before adding, "I'd also like to get to know you and have you get to know our daughter better as well if you would allow it."

"Of course," he agreed.

"Me and Sirius have also decided to have you be her godfather," she admitted.

"Me?" He asked in shock.

She laughed and said, "since Sirius was your godfather, we figured that it would be best if you were our daughter's."

"I don't see why not," he answered.

"Thanks Harry," she said before asking, "can I give you a hug?"

He reached around her very pregnant belly and gave her one.

"One last thing," she asked, "do you already know how to dance? I figured that with you and all the girls that it might be a good thing to know before the wedding."

"I don't, but I guess I could ask either Susan or Pansy to teach me," He replied.

"Well then at the wedding be sure and save a dance for me," she asked.

"I will," he promised.

DUELDUELDE

Later on, Harry opened up Susan and Pansy's door.

He found both girls currently in a state of partial undress as they were only clad in their new underwear.

"Oops, sorry," he tried to apologize.

"It's perfectly all right Harry, nothing you haven't seen before," Susan reminded him as she rolled over on her bed so that she was now facing him, "What's up?"

He also couldn't help but stare at her bra encased chest once again, something that she was quite aware of and seemed perfectly content to have him do.

She seemed to almost direct him there with her eyes.

"Narcissa recommended that I get dance lessons from one or both of you before the wedding," he answered.

Both girls grinned.

"We would absolutely love to teach you how to dance," Susan replied happily.

"Uh could you at least get some clothes on before we do," he nervously asked.

Susan frowned but quickly put on a shirt and some pants.

"Before we begin do you have any dance experience Harry?" Susan asked.

He shook his head and said, "the Dursleys sure didn't teach me, although I did watch my aunt try to teach Dudley once so that he'd know for smart parties."

"Then let's see if you remember anything she tried to teach you first," recommended Susan.

He somehow still remembered where he was supposed to put his hands on her body, and while there was no music, she gave him leave to start.

This left him feeling rather awkward as he really didn't remember anything past this point, and he was about to say so when suddenly something inside him seemed to take over.

He placed his left foot directly to his left and in response so did she and then he continued to move around, moving his body in a way he knew his aunt nor anyone else he had ever seen for that matter dance.

Yet it seemed so natural, so perfect that he didn't stop.

Everything he did was perfectly mirrored by Susan, who looked just as surprised as he did as they danced.

Even when he did something elaborate, she seemed to be there waiting for it, including spinning her around, lifting her up, even passing her underneath his legs for him to immediately pick up after wards.

Although there was no music, it sounded almost like there was, only it was no song that he had never heard before and it didn't seem to be audible, just resonated from inside. It was beautiful and caring, yet strong and passionate, and penetrated deeply within him.

As they danced, Harry began to feel... emotion, passion, power?

None of those seemed to really describe what he was feeling but whatever it was it felt good.

All he knew was that it was beautiful and it was good and it was all him and Susan at that moment.

It was more than a dance at that moment, he realized, it was perfect symmetry between two people that loved each other.

Finally Susan ended it as she pulled away from him, leaving her gasping for air at the physical exertion.

Pansy seemed in total awe and exclaimed:

"Wow, that was absolutely amazing! I thought you said you didn't know how to dance Harry?"

"I don't," he confided, "something just seemed to take over.

Susan could only stare at him with something akin to absolute wonderment, as if he was the only thing in the universe, and seemed to want more of whatever had happened.

"That was so intense," she finally admitted, "I've never danced or even felt like that, it's like you understood my very soul and matched it entirely through dance. It felt like a song was playing, a song that seemed perfect for me."

"I'd like to see just what you are talking about," Pansy said, offering her arm to Harry.

He took it and led off by doing the same thing, letting something deep inside him take over.

The direction he took with Pansy was softer, more gentle, less spins and less frantic movement but it was still just as beautiful.

He had already felt tired after his dance with Susan but now he suddenly felt full of energy again.

Pansy was just as in awe as Susan had been and he realized that with her, it was like this was Pansy's song, this was her soul. It was gentle and loving yet somehow also conveyed intelligence and just so Pansy.

As with Susan it felt just so right, yet Pansy ended it more quickly.

As he stared at her, she had the same expression that Susan's had had, only he now recognized what emotion she really had most of all: need.

She kissed him back as if her life depended on it, as she pushed into him. From what he could tell, she was apparently more turned on than he had ever seen her before.

She slipped one hand underneath his shirt, while the other went right onto his butt.

His hand had been currently sitting at her waist, but she pulled it down directly onto her bum.

He tried to pull it off, but she kept her hand directly over his, forcing it to stay there.

"Mmm, just keep it there Harry," she said breathlessly.

Deciding that they were going a bit too far, he gently pushed her away and said:

"Um this is a bit much, it might be better if we get some space."

He left the room, leaving the two girls behind but didn't stray far, just on the other side of the door, where he still overheard the conversation that they both had.

"It looked like you were about to have sex with him right then and there!" Susan claimed.

"I know," Pansy admitted sounding slightly guilty, "I don't even know what came over me, it was just so romantic, like we were listening to my favorite song and dancing the way I'd always wanted to dance, and best of all it was with him."

"It's not like I can really blame you, it took me until you two had already started dancing before I realized I wanted exactly the same thing, otherwise I probably would have," Susan replied.

"I've never felt like that, never connected with anyone so well, it's like I didn't just want him, I needed him at that moment," Pansy said.

"Whatever it was, I'm a little worried about if I'll be able to stop myself the next time we dance," Susan answered.

"Do you think that some spell or something could be involved?" Pansy wondered.

"I don't see how else Harry could suddenly be the most incredible dancer on earth and also make us feel like that," Susan responded.

"I think we had better go find your aunt and ask her," Pansy said.

The two girls went outside the room to find Harry still there and then they went to go find Amelia who was with Sirius and explained everything that had just transpired.

"So Harry you've never learned to dance before?" Amelia asked.

"No, never," he admitted.

"I can't seem to think of any spell that would cause a person to suddenly pick up dancing skills," Amelia commented.

Pansy said: "It wasn't just good dancing, it's like we were dancing to the rhythm of my very soul, like the dance matched perfectly with my very self. It was just so beautiful that I totally got caught up in the moment, I think if Harry hadn't backed off, I would have easily given into him."

"I'm sorry if I did anything wrong Amelia," Harry answered, not wanting her to feel like he had broken her trust.

Through all of this, Sirius had been totally silent but then said: "I do believe that I can shed a little light on this mystery. I do believe that Harry just might be a soul dancer, someone who is able to connect with a person that he or she loves' and who loves them back and emulate that love in a dance that is perfectly in sync with that person. Like what a person really is is exemplified in a dance and a song with each person being different.

It's a gift that Harry's father James had as well, and after Lily and he danced for the first time it was like sparks were flying. That was also their first time having sex too."

"What if that happens again when we dance?" Susan asked, "I mean I'm sure it wouldn't be too terrible of a thing to happen but I'd still like to be able to control it, it was totally romantic and all-consuming."

"It is still just a dance, and you still have control even though I'm told it is incredibly romantic. You could break it at any time, and you should be able to resist anything afterwards although it will be more difficult. Just cut back on dancing too much and you should be fine."

"What would happen if Harry did that with a girl he didn't already love romantically?" Amelia asked.

"He would be able to dance with them, but they just wouldn't have any connection so Harry could anticipate their movements and follow them, but he could never lead and have them be able to follow if that makes any sense," Sirius explained.

As if to demonstrate or find out for herself, Amelia took Harry's hands and tried to dance with him.

When he did so he first tried leading off but found he suddenly had no idea just what to do, and it became a complete mess with him stepping on her toes more than once.

"Like I said," Sirius proved.

Then Amelia decided to lead and he found that he could respond, not in the same way that he could with the girls but it was still beautiful and he could still hear a song playing that was strong yet loving.

Amelia ended it quickly however.

"I couldn't hear any song or feel anything, but he did respond rather well to where I wanted him to go," Amelia said.

"He can anticipate your movements but since you don't romantically love him and have that connection with him, you weren't able to react to it," Sirius explained.

"This has to be a rather weird gift to have, but I really like it," Susan confessed as she looked over at him lovingly.

"So do I," he admitted as he put his hand into hers while doing the same with Pansy on the other side of him.

"I'm adding that to my list of positives for my future husband," Pansy said, "dancer."

DUELDUELDE

Preparing for the wedding was a nightmare, despite the large amount of help they received from professionals that they hired, but they finally got it all done, with all the guests visibly impressed.

As best man, Harry stood close to Sirius waiting for the two brides to come out.

Amelia and Narcissa came out at the same time, with Sirius waiting at the altar along with the one conducting the marriage, which was actually Scrimgeour.

Since Scrimgeour had the most level headed voice he had ever heard, Harry supposed that this was a good choice.

Scrimgeour began with:

"Family and Friends, wizards and non-wizards alike, we are gathered here to celebrate the union between Sirius Black and these two lovely ladies, Amelia Bones and Narcissa Black."

Scrimgeour yammered on and on about love and stuff that Harry really wasn't listening to as he was more focused on Sirius, Amelia, and Narcissa's expressions, who looked totally in love.

Finally Scrimgeour got to the part that everyone had been waiting for.

"Sirius do you take these two women to be your lawfully wedded wives?" Scrimgeour asked.

"Yes," Sirius said as he looked upon the two women he loved.

"Do you Amelia agree to take Sirius as your lawfully wedded husband?"

"I do," Amelia answered back even as she remained focused on Sirius.

"Do you Narcissa agree to take Sirius as your lawfully wedded husband?"

"I do," Narcissa said, wearing a matching expression of love for her husband to be.

"Then with the power vested in me by the ministry of magic, I now pronounce you man and wives. You may kiss the brides."

Sirius leaned in and kissed Amelia, followed by Narcissa.

Immediately following the wedding they had a reception, with everyone wishing congratulations to the newlyweds.

Harry was only just going to go back and get some more food when someone stopped him.

"Mr. Potter we meet at last," the man said.

Before he could say anything back, Pansy came over.

"Harry this is my father, Mr. Parkinson," Pansy introduced.

"I'm pleased to meet you finally," Harry replied to be polite even if he wasn't actually pleased to meet him.

Pansy had already filled him in on his character and he already had a rather bad opinion formed of him.

"Likewise," Mr. Parkinson said, shaking his hand, "so you are the boy that will be taking my daughter off my hands. I trust that she is behaving as a good pureblood girl should."

The way that he referred to her like his property made Harry's rather low opinion of him drop another notch.

"She has been better than I could have ever dreamed, I really couldn't ask for better," he replied.

"If she really is that good perhaps I should have asked for a better deal," Parkinson joked.

"What are you talking about?" He asked.

"Well surely you didn't think you were getting for free, I worked out a deal with Dumbledore, and he said that he had told you," Parkinson claimed.

Harry was about to reply but Pansy butted in and said, "Of course he does, and it's still perfectly acceptable to him, he just didn't quite get your joke in time."

Parkinson nodded satisfied and said, "well then again it was nice to meet you and I hope that we will be able to do more business in the future."

After he had left, he asked Pansy, "Why did you tell him that?"

"It's just the way of marriage contracts, whenever a new one is formed, certain conditions are set, usually some agreed upon price for the girl or some business deal. I'd imagine that Dumbledore took care of it when you first won me in the duel."

Mad that Dumbledore hadn't told him, he still asked, "what would happen if I hadn't agreed to pay, and why didn't you ever tell me?"

"I suppose it never came up as I always just assumed that you knew, but didn't want to talk about it," Pansy admitted, "As for your first question if you hadn't agreed to at least match what was already agreed upon in the original contract then my father would have had grounds to challenge or possibly break it. However since Dumbledore apparently agreed upon the price in your stead than my father would have been obligated to keep it."

"So that would mean that Dumbledore apparently wanted me to be betrothed to you," he answered.

"Correct, but he just assured me that it was because he could tell I was much happier with you, and I wasn't in the mood to question my good fortune," Pansy replied.

"I still feel like there is more to it than that," Harry said.

"Harry do you love me?" Pansy asked.

"Of course I do," He answered truthfully.

"What price would you be willing to pay for me?" She asked.

"I'd give anything for you," he responded.

"Then as long as that remains the case, I'm not worried about what Dumbledore agreed to have you pay for me, but you can ask Narcissa for a copy as your new guardian later," Pansy told him, "but now let's dance."

"What about what happened last time?" He asked.

"Then we'll dance only a little bit and you can either dance with the other girls or go get some more food," she suggested.

Reluctantly he when out with her onto the dance floor.

Currently there was some other music playing by some professional band that Narcissa had hired but as soon as he started dancing with Pansy, that music seemed to fade and be replaced by the one that resonated from within as Pansy's internal song began to play.

Their bodies moving in perfect sync, he became caught up in it and he could tell so was she.

After a few minutes however she stopped and said, "All right, I think that's enough. You're almost like a drug when we dance like this, I can't get enough of it and I find myself wanting you more."

As he looked around he noticed that many people were watching them, also impressed by their dancing skills.

Pansy then left but was quickly replaced by Gabrielle who had seen them dancing.

Gabrielle of course had heard about his dancing ability but he hadn't actually danced with her before and as they began, it became something totally different, the song and the dance became more slow before suddenly speeding up again, and then going from sad to happy.

Registering the same shock as both Susan and Pansy, she allowed him to dance with her, responding to his every movement.

Fleur had to remind Gabrielle to stop as caught up as she was, and took her place.

He danced with all the girls then, each for only a period of a few minutes before being replaced by another.

They then rotated back with him dancing with each of them 3 times before he finally chose to end it and go sit down.

"Sirius told me about your dancing ability but it was another thing entirely to watch. I've never seen anyone dance like that," Narcissa admitted as she came up to him.

Remembering that he had promised to dance with her, he asked her if she would like to.

As she took his hand back onto the dance floor she reminded him, "just try to be much more gentle with me, I am 8 months pregnant after all."

Seeing as this was a concern when he danced with her it was little more than very slight movements, perhaps a gentle rocking back and forth, which is what he judged her to be capable of handling.

Since he had never really properly learned to dance, even his lack of knowledge was more than enough to handle it.

"Be careful not to break me," she joked.

"Sorry I just didn't want to do too much," he responded.

"You're fine," she told him.

After the song ended, she thanked him for the dance and then went to go sit back down, while he went to go dance with Amelia.

By the time he finally finished his dance with her, however, he was totally exhausted and sat down at the same table the girls were all sitting at.

"Well you certainly can dance Harry," Fleur admitted.

"Thanks," he answered, "so nobody want to jump me and get me in bed?"

"As tempting as that is, I'm going to pass on that," Tonks answered.

Tonks had been the only one that his dancing skill had not worked with, forcing her to be the one to lead and him following along.

She was still impressed but it hadn't had the same impact that it had had on the other girls.

"I'd still be willing to do that but I'm sure I can manage to resist," Fleur said, only half jokingly.

"Well it looks like they are going to go cut the cake," Susan announced, licking her lips.

DUELDUELDE

A few weeks later while Harry and the girls were doing pre auror training they were informed by Amelia that Narcissa had gone into labor.

When Harry and the girls all got to the hospital with Amelia about half an hour later, Harry had been expecting to wait a few hours outside in the waiting room while Narcissa went through the pains of labor, but evidently this wasn't the case.

"I'd imagine she's already had the baby by now," Amelia remarked as she found out from the woman at the front desk in what room Narcissa was in.

"That fast?" Harry asked.

"Magical pregnancies I'm told are a lot faster. We use a pain killing spell and another spell to make the baby come out faster. That's why I waited for a little while. It really doesn't take long."

As they all entered the room, they found Amelia was correct as they saw Narcissa already holding a brand new baby girl."

"Awe!" The girls all collectively said at the same time.

"She's so little," remarked Susan as she stared at the tiny new infant.

"6 pounds 11 ounces," Sirius said proudly.

As everyone eyed the new baby, Harry couldn't help but notice just how proud both Sirius and Narcissa were at being new parents.

"Did you finally decide what to name her?" Pansy asked.

"Cassiopeia or Cassie for short," Narcissa said happily.

Eventually Narcissa allowed each of the girls to hold her as they stayed in the hospital throughout the day but when it came time for his turn he was rather nervous that he might somehow drop her or something worse.

Taking baby Cassiopeia gently, he held her as Narcissa instructed him to and watched her as she currently had her eyes open staring at him.

"Hi, I'm your godfather Harry," he said quietly to her.

She closed her eyes then and fell asleep.

Author's Note: I've read a lot of powers and abilities that people have given Harry from a photographic memory to a metamorphmagus to Harry being able to turn into a centaur but nobody has ever come up with him being a soul dancer, an interesting change to the soul bond or the forced loving bond. It explores the idea that there is a song or a dance for everyone that is just so them and matches their personality perfectly.


	30. The Triwizard Cup

Author's Note: I actually wrote another chapter for the summer covering the dueling tournament and the world cup, but it just seemed entirely pointless to write about and it just wasn't that good. Suffice it to say, Harry won the world championship again beating Lao in the semi-finals and Gabrielle in the finals who came in second.

They went to the world cup where nothing happened because Lucius Malfoy and many of the death eaters are now in prison or in hiding.

Chapter 30

The Triwizard Cup

In getting back to Hogwarts, the sorting ceremony was altogether different from before.

It began the same however as names were called and sorted into each of the first four houses but when it got to "Lucy Dawes" a little redheaded girl, she was sorted into Peeves, followed by her twin sister Mary Dawes.

Harry privately wondered if perhaps they had another couple of Weasley twins on their hands, but decided it was too close to call.

Nevertheless both girls seemed happy to be in Peeves and they gave them a warm welcome as they went sat down at their table.

Peeves looked positively gleeful of course as he welcomed the new students into his house, he knew what it meant, House Peeves was here to stay for at least 7 more years.

Harry however was somewhat disappointed as it might mean the end of watching the girls walk around in their underwear, something he had come to enjoy over the summer.

At any rate, after the sorting ceremony Dumbledore got up to give them some interesting news.

"I would like to present Professor Alastor Moody, who will be filling the Defense Against the Dark Arts job this year," Dumbledore said, "I wish to assure everyone that he has properly been vetted and administered certain tests to make sure that he isn't impersonating anyone, isn't a fraud, or anything besides exactly who he is, the ex-auror Alastor Moody."

Moody stood up and surprisingly nodded over at their table.

"What happened to Lupin? I liked him," Tonks said, sounding upset.

"Apparently Dumbledore must have sacked him," Harry replied.

"I can't imagine why, he was actually a rather decent teacher I thought," Tonks answered.

"Well we all know Moody from pre-auror training. He's a bit paranoid but a decent teacher nonetheless," Susan commented.

Moody went and sat down and Dumbledore continued:

"I am also very pleased to announce that this year Hogwarts will be hosting the Triwizard cup."

A flurry of whispers and conversations suddenly broke out at that.

"What's the Triwizard Cup?" Su asked.

"It's a tournament that used to be held between two other magical schools in Europe where each school selected their best student and tried to win by getting past certain magical obstacles," Susan explained, "however it was discontinued a long while back because champions kept dying."

Dumbledore continued on with his announcement.

"In order to provide additional safety we have decided to impose an age limit of 17 for any who wish to enter," Dumbledore said.

"I guess that counts me out," Su said, obviously disappointed that she wouldn't be able to compete.

"You could still do it though Fleur, you're of age now," Pansy pointed out enthusiastically to her.

"I'll admit I'm pretty tempted but we'll see," Fleur replied, still considering it.

After finishing, Dumbledore allowed the feast to begin and they began eating.

Instead of sitting back down however Dumbledore came all the way over to their table.

He doubted it was to see if they had anymore salt and pepper. Knowing Dumbledore he wanted something from them.

"Mr. Potter," Dumbledore said, "I just want you to know that as a 2 time world dueling champion, we feel that we would be willing to make an exception and allow you to enter the tournament despite not being of age. I'd be more than happy to put your name into consideration for you so that you can."

Harry thought about it for a moment, but then decided he really did not want to compete. Just the annual dueling tournament was good enough for him, and he wanted to continue focusing on that.

"No thank you Dumbledore but perhaps Gabrielle or Su would like to take you up on your offer,," Harry suggested.

Dumbledore frowned and said, "The offer was only for you Mr. Potter, we can't be sure that they would be as prepared as you would be expected to be."

"Nonsense, both Gabrielle and Su are just as good of duelists as me," Harry claimed.

When Dumbledore saw that he would get nowhere with Harry, he seemed to give up.

"I'm sorry to have bothered you Mr. Potter," Dumbledore answered as he turned around and headed back to the teacher's table.

"Dumbledore must really want you to compete in the tournament," Gabrielle observed.

"Isn't it obvious?" Susan said as she tried to explain: "Harry is the most well known Hogwarts student in the world and one of the best duelists in Britain, so of course he wants Harry to compete. Harry would be perceived as Hogwarts best chance of winning by Dumbledore. Dumbledore wants to win as it would seem to validate the strength of the magical education taught here, and so reflect upon Dumbledore as a headmaster."

"Is it really all that important?" Harry asked.

" Like it or not," Susan explained, "your winning the world dueling championship two years in a row no doubt has already brought a lot of prestige to Hogwarts. The International community has most certainly taken notice and Dumbledore I have no doubt will have led people to believe that it is a result of good teaching at Hogwarts."

He nodded, he supposed that that would make sense even though completely inaccurate. From what he'd heard from Fleur and Gabrielle about Beauxbatons it seemed far superior in terms of quality teaching in most cases.

"That's ridiculous though," Fleur exclaimed, agreeing with his own thoughts, "half of the teachers here are terrible and don't seem to know what they're doing."

"True but that isn't what the international community will really notice, they'll be more focused on the champion of Hogwarts and if they end up winning the tournament. It will make it look like Dumbledore is actually doing a good job to them," Susan pointed out.

"Why didn't he want me or Gabrielle to try and compete if we have a really good chance of winning too?" Su asked.

"Since you're both foreigners it would only take away from his claims that British wizards are truly the best," Susan answered, "It looks bad if someone not from Britain ends up being judged better than all the other British students and represents Hogwarts, like British wizards were so bad that they had to get someone from another country to have someone decent. He likely doesn't want Fleur competing for the same reason even though he can't really do anything about it if she decides to enter."

Harry was going to object that this sounded a bit ridiculous but then he was reminded of the Olympics that the Dursleys had watched every 4 years back when he lived with them. No matter what, the Dursleys always cheered on the British athletes even though they hadn't even heard of their names before or likely even the sport. Just the fact that they were British was reason enough for them.

Countries that won a lot of medals tried to prove that they were truly the best because they had the best athletes.

He supposed that Dumbledore's probable motives were actually quite human, even though he still resented him for it.

"Well I'm entering just to spite him," Fleur cheekily claimed.

"Go for it Fleur," Harry said.

DUELDUELDE

That night, while he sat in the common room, reading a book on dueling, Gabrielle walked out in her underwear.

Yet when she saw Lucy and Mary sitting out on the couch, she froze.

To her surprise however when Lucy noticed, she asked, "Ooh does this mean that we get to go around in our underwear in the common room?"

"We've just gotten rather used to it, but with you two here it might now need to be different," Gabrielle admitted.

"We're all girls here except for Harry, and we don't mind if he sees us in our underwear," Mary claimed.

"Or we see him in his underwear," Lucy said unabashedly.

"You're kind of young for that," Gabrielle tried to say.

"We could always go naked instead," Mary suggested.

"You've got a rather cute body, it seems a shame to cover it up," Lucy observed as she looked over at Gabrielle, still dressed in her underwear.

"We wouldn't want to deprive Harry from it," Mary added.

"Do you want to see Gabrielle's naked cute body Harry?" Lucy asked.

These girls seemed to be the girl versions of the Weasley twins, although much more open about sexuality it seemed, even at such young ages.

He blushed at her question however.

"He definitely does even if he doesn't want to admit it," Mary observed.

"Maybe he just doesn't want to give us a reason to be naked too," Lucy pointed out.

"Probably just doesn't want to see our little girl bodies and be called a pervert," Mary claimed.

"Is that your problem Harry?" Lucy asked, pretending to be concerned.

"I really don't think that its a good idea for 11 year old girls to be naked in front of a 14 year old boy and Gabrielle and the rest of the girls are only in their underwear because I'm engaged to all of them and I already know them quite well."

Both girls nodded at each other.

"Well then I suppose we can live with that. Nudity for the girls you are engaged to, but not for us and you," Mary concluded.

"Not unless you want to go naked in front of us Harry we wouldn't have a problem with that," Lucy added.

"You girls are a real piece of work you know that," Gabrielle commented.

"We know!" Both of them said at once.

After a moment's pause they started up again.

"So I hear there are some really good pranks that are pulled in this house," Lucy asked, grinning.

Yep, definitely like the Weasley twins.

DUELDUELDE

Later in the week, they had their first lesson with Moody.

Harry and the girls were of course already used to Moody, and so were unsurprised by his beginning speech on constant vigilance.

However, they were not prepared for what he said next.

"While you may have a rather good knowledge of dark magical creatures due to the instruction of Professor Lupin last year," Moody concluded, "you're terribly behind when it comes to curses. Now who can tell me what an unforgivable curse is?"

Had Hermione actually been in this class she most certainly would have known and immediately raised her hand, but they were sharing with the ravenclaws in this class.

Nevertheless he and all the girls knew the answer as Scrimgeour had taught them about them over the summer.

"An unforgivable curse is one of three curses deemed by the ministry to be so illegal and harmful that the use of one of them upon another human can lead to a life sentence in Azkaban," Susan said.

"Correct," Moody answered, "although of course certain exceptions have been frequently made. I've had to use one of them on two occasions in order to save my own life. It certainly wasn't something that I enjoyed doing, as it shouldn't be.

Unforgivables were used far too much and to often tragic results by death eaters in the war with Voldemort."

All the ravenclaws shuddered at Moody's mention of unforgivables and the name Voldemort but Moody ignored this and continued on.

"Now who can name one of the unforgivables for me?" Moody asked.

"The imperious curse," Pansy said.

Moody pulled out a spider from a glass jar from his desk and pointed his wand at the spider before it could get away.

"Imperio," Moody yelled.

Immediately the spider stopped trying to get away and instead began to do rather odd things that a spider would not be expected to ever do.

Since Scrimgeour had actually done this same demonstration before, Harry was not at all surprised by this.

Moody began explaining about the Imperius Curse, followed by the Cruciatus Curse, and ending with Avada Kedavra the killing curse.

After killing the spider, Moody told the class: "The killing curse, there is only one person known to have survived it and they are sitting right here in this room."

Moody looked directly at him and so did the rest of the class.

Personally he couldn't help think about the fact that out of the countless thousands or tens of thousands that had died from the killing curse over the years, he had been the only one to ever survive it. Not even his parents, just him.

What made him so special that he should live and all of them should die?

DUELDUELDE

He was still thinking about it after dinner and after dueling practice.

Flitwick had held him after to give him extra homework, and only Pansy had remained behind to wait for him.

As he went with her back to their common room, she asked, "So what exactly has been bothering you?"

"Nothing is bothering me," Harry tried to deny.

She looked at him pointedly and said, "I know you well enough to know when something is bothering you and it definitely is. During practice you seemed like you were somewhere else and you couldn't even do the Wasumi spell correctly, a spell you've used 100 times, Flitwick even had to pull you aside afterwards to make you practice it more. Something is bothering you, I know it."

He sighed. One of the girls always seemed to pick up on it when something was bothering him, and it was usually Pansy.

"It's just what Moody said about me being the only one to survive the killing curse," He confessed, "Why should I be the only one to survive it instead of the many people who didn't including my parents?"

"So you feel guilty for living when they all died?" Pansy surmised.

"Yes," he admitted.

"That's survivor's guilt Harry, it's quite natural to feel that way," She answered, "we think that we don't deserve to have survived when so many others died. Often we wish that we could take the place of a person who died who we feel deserves it more. Yet it is important to recognize that while we may not know why we survived, we shouldn't be upset over our good fortune and instead only be grateful. Live life to the fullest and think of it as a great gift, instead of letting our guilt consume us and thus make the gift of life a waste."

"You seem to know a lot about this," He observed, "did you survive something you haven't told me about?"

"I didn't survive when I probably should have died if that is what you are asking," Pansy admitted, "but I still experience much the same thing when it comes to me and my life with Draco. There are so many people that are forced into undesirable marriages or into abuse, yet out of the many who never escape, I was one of the few lucky ones. What makes me so special that I should be so lucky?"

Harry couldn't believe that Pansy would feel this way as to him she was very special. Of course she deserved to have gotten away from Draco.

"There's no way you ever deserved to be with Draco, and you are very special, especially to me," Harry answered, "I would save you again in a heartbeat if I had to."

"I know that, but it took awhile to fully realize that," she said.

As he thought for a second he asked, "You know the way things are maybe we could get the legality of marriage contracts repealed. I was thinking we would have to wait until I came of age, but I'll bet Narcissa and Amelia could get it passed much more quickly."

"I think that would be a good idea, but it would have to be done carefully. Many wizards still regard their daughters as mere bargaining chips but at least they afford them some degree of making sure they are cared for and raised properly. Without that I'm afraid that girls would be treated far worse as they would then not have any real value," Pansy pointed out.

He nodded as this did make sense, but he still felt he could improve the situation somewhat.

"What about you though?" He asked, "If you could get your own marriage contract to me repealed would you want to? It would leave you free to seek out any other man that caught your fancy, someone much less complicated than me."

She gave him a look of total incredulity and said, "There is absolutely no way that I would ever leave you or not want to marry you. I love you, I love you so much sometimes it hurts. I would do anything for you and if that means sharing you with other girls and dealing with your excess baggage then so be it."

"I just wanted to give you the option. I love you and it would hurt to see you leave me, but I love you enough to at least offer it to you," He answered.

He put his hand into hers and gave it a little squeeze.

"I'm grateful that you would care about me enough to at least make such an offer, but we're together now, and only death is ever going to change that," she answered.

She gave him a kiss, a long passionate one filled with desire.

Unbidden his hand slipped down to cup her bum and he gently tried to pull it away, but Pansy stopped him.

"It's all right Harry," she said.

"What if I hurt you though?" He asked fearfully.

"How would you hurt me?" He asked.

"What if I lose control or go further than you want me to?" He asked.

"Is that what you're worried about, that you might lose control and hurt one of us?" She asked incredulously.

"That's what happens when boys and men lose control," Harry admitted.

Pansy stopped in her tracks and asked, "I'm sure some men do, but definitely not you Harry, you've always been the perfect gentleman."

"Most of the men I know do. What about my uncle, or my cousin, or all of his friends that used to beat me up everyday? Or Ron? Or Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle? Most of the boys I know lose control and when they do they hurt people."

Pansy sighed, as he finally admitted what his problem was to her.

Virtually all the males that he knew when they lost control hurt people, and when he was being intimate with one of the girls he couldn't totally trust himself or his actions. He'd never forgive himself if anything bad happened to any of them because of him.

"You just haven't had a lot of good male role models in your life. You have Sirius, but you still keep him at a distance and now I can see why," Pansy figured, "Harry I want you to know that I trust you not to hurt me, so do all of the girls. If I really wanted you to stop, I know I could tell you to stop and you would immediately stop."

"What if I couldn't stop and I forced you anyway? You'd most likely hate me and then I'd be just like Draco to you," he answered.

Pansy did something she had never done before and slapped him. Hard.

It caused his cheek to sting where it landed.

"Don't you ever say that again," she said furiously, "you are absolutely nothing like Draco and if you ever did try to hurt me I would slap you just as hard as that. The man I know you are would never hurt me anyway."

He was stunned. He had never seen Pansy become violent like that before.

"I just hurt you Harry and I did it intentionally. Do you hate me now?" She demanded.

"Of course not, I love you Pansy, you know that, even though I'm a little hurt that you would slap me," he answered.

"That's exactly my point," she argued, "even if you did hurt me, I'm sure it would be unintentional, and I would still love you."

He suddenly understood her point, even if she had had to slap him in order to do it.

Pansy then began to cry as she said, "Do you know how much I love you Harry? Slapping you hurt me just as much as it did you, as it should be. A person that truly loves another person would never want to cause them too much pain. I know you love me so I know that you will never abuse me."

"I never really thought of it like that," he confessed.

"To be honest Harry, if it was just us two in a relationship I would most likely be hurt for thinking that you didn't want me, and that was the reason that you held back," she answered.

"How could you think that though Pansy? You're so beautiful. Merlin, there are days that I can't even stop thinking about you, and just how lucky I am to have you," He replied.

"Harry if you really want me, you can have me. I regard my body to be yours just as much as it is mine. Whatever you want to touch, you can touch, and I promise I won't get upset," she answered.

Sheepishly, and still somewhat nervous, he gazed down upon her beautiful body trying to decide what he wanted and was okay with.

He finally asked, "Can I touch your butt?"

She grinned and obligingly turned around so that he could get a full view of her succulent rear.

Placing his left hand upon his left cheek, he was forced to concede that it admittedly felt good, firmer than he would have guessed.

Growing more bold he slowly began to massage his hand against her full bum, causing a moan to come from her mouth.

"You like that?" He asked.

"Mmm yes," she answered, "I've been wanting you to do that for forever now."

"For forever?" He asked.

"Yes," she answered bluntly, "for forever. You want to go back to our common room to continue this and make out?"

"Absolutely," he answered happily.

It was a new thing for him, but he wasn't about to turn down a lovely rear to feel up when it was offered ever again, he promised himself.

DUELDUELDE

As the weeks went by, all of the students eagerly awaited the arrival of the two other schools that would be competing in the tournament, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang.

For both Fleur and Gabrielle, it meant seeing their old friends at Beauxbatons again and both were understandably quite excited.

"My friend Marie wrote me and told me that she was one of the students that was coming, and so did my cousin Roxanne," Fleur informed them.

"I wonder just how they are going to choose who each of the champions will be?" Harry asked.

"Maybe each of the headmasters choose," suggested Gabrielle.

"If that's the case then there's no way he'll pick Fleur," Su said, "most likely some bigshot 7th year, dashingly handsome and a dandy. Someone who will look and act satisfactorily as well as perform well in the tournament. If that's the case, then my money is on Cedric Diggory."

"Well I don't suppose that would be too bad," Susan said, "I rather like Cedric as the captain of my quidditch team, but I don't think Dumbledore will be the one choosing him. Otherwise the other schools wouldn't be sending so many other students to try and see if they will be chosen to compete."

They all nodded at that.

When it came time for the other schools, they waited patiently as Beauxbatons arrived in a flying carriage led by huge flying horses.

Harry really couldn't blame them for wanting to travel in style, although the carriage did look rather extravagant.

When they all got out of the carriage and began to file into the castle, Fleur and Gabrielle embraced their cousin and their friend.

Their cousin Roxanne had long red hair that went halfway down her butt and Marie had long white mid back length blonde hair and had piercing light blue eyes.

Both of the two Beauxbatons girls were quite beautiful, despite not being veela and were earning a lot of looks from many of the Hogwarts boys.

Indeed many of the boys at Hogwarts looked like their eyes were going to pop out at the sight of the many Beauxbatons girls.

Harry just rolled his eyes at this however, he already had plenty of beautiful girls to occupy his time and vision with.

"This is our fiance Harry," Fleur introduced both Marie and Roxanne to him.

He took both their hands, planting a kiss on each one much to their delight.

"It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance," he told them.

"Fleur told me that you are quite the charmer Harry," Roxanne claimed, winking.

"Sorry but Harry is already taken many times over," Gabrielle said, lunging over to give him a kiss and prove her claim.

"I can see that," Marie said, looking at all of Harry's girls assembled around him, "it looks like he's already got an army to defend him."

"I must know though Harry, how did you manage to win all of these girls' hearts?" Roxanne asked.

"I have no idea," he confessed, earning laughs from all the girls.

Their headmistress, a very large woman just as big as Hagrid bade them both to come along, breaking up the reunion as Marie and Roxanne reluctantly followed their classmates.

Still he noticed that they all sat down at the Peeves table as that one had the most room, there not being a lot of students occupying it so at least they would be sitting near each other.

Durmstrang arrived a few minutes later in a ship appearing underneath the lake.

Harry wasn't sure just how they had gotten under the lake, but he knew enough about magic to know that just about anything was possible.

As the Durmstrang students filed in, Susan immediately exclaimed excitedly, "It's Viktor Krum."

Harry did recognize the Bulgarian Seeker. They had seen him play at the World Cup.

Needless to say, many of the Hogwarts students also recognized him and were pointing at him.

As Krum walked by Ron however, Krum brushed against him causing an overexcited Ron at actually touching him to faint.

Nobody even needed to do anything to him for Ron to embarrass himself, he thought, he just did it on his own.

Looking down at the fallen Weasley, Hermione who was standing next to him said, "Sorry about him, he suffers from fainting spells, the poor boy."

"What is your name?" Krum asked, looking right at her.

"Hermione," she answered.

"I am very pleased to meet you Herm-own-ninny," Krum said, badly messing up the pronunciation of her name.

He nevertheless took her hand and kissed it, "I can see that British girls can indeed be quite beautiful."

Hermione blushed at the compliment.

Krum moved on with the other Durmstrang students, leaving behind a suddenly very nervous Hermione and a completely stunned looking Ron who was only just now coming to.

"Viktor Krum actually touched me," He exclaimed in amazement as he grasped the part of his coat that Krum had accidentally touched.

Harry rolled his eyes at this, Ron really could be pathetic at times.

Actually make that all the time.

When the Durmstrang students had settled in further down the Peeves table from the Beauxbatons students, Dumbledore, now sitting in between both the two other headmasters, began his speech.

"We'd like to welcome all of our guests to Hogwarts," Dumbledore announced, "Madame Maxime and Igor Karkaroff will be helping to judge the tournament along with me, Barty Crouch, and Ludo Bagman, who helped to organize this tournament."

As each person was introduced they stood.

Harry noticed that Hagrid was currently setting up something in the middle of the room, placing a stand, and then a large box on the ground.

As he lifted something out of the box, Dumbledore explained what it was.

"As you can see, my Care of Magical Creatures Professor is setting up the Triwizard Cup, which will be the impartial judge for selecting each champion from each school. Students that are 17 or older may elect to put their names into the goblet for consideration, but do not do so lightly, as doing so creates a magically binding contract that forces you to compete should you be chosen. There will also be an age line in place preventing any students under age from submitting their names."

Harry stared at the Triwizard Cup as it gleamed a bright blue.

It would be nice to compete and win, as an image of himself winning entered his mind, yet it quickly faded, he really didn't need any more glory or money. He would let someone else get some for once.

After Dumbledore finished his speech, the food arrived and they began to dig in.

There were several dishes he didn't recognize, which he guessed were from countries that Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students were from.

"Fleur tells me that you are a world dueling champion," Marie said, addressing him.

"That's correct," he responded.

"I imagine you must be pretty good if you managed to beat Gabrielle over the summer, she's really good from what I've seen and heard," Roxanne admitted.

"Gabrielle is very good, and she beats me just as much as I beat her, I got lucky again this year, but next year I fully expect either her or Su to beat me," Harry answered.

"So were either of you planning on entering?" Susan asked the two French girls.

"We are," Roxanne replied.

"I hope one of you end up getting it then," Susan said.

"Thank you," Marie answered.

When it came time, both of them entered their names into the goblet, along with Fleur.

Harry hoped that at least one of them would be selected.

DUELDUELDE

A few days later Dumbledore sat in his office just before the names for each of the champions were to be selected.

He hadn't been in a particularly mood to begin with, but now it was even worse. He'd dedicated his life to the service of the greater good and he couldn't understand why people would ever think he was a bad guy. Everything he did was for that yet now he had the likes of Amelia and Narcissa Black breathing down his neck about some of the controversial laws he had gotten passed over the years.

All of those laws had been for the greater good yet now they were getting reviewed or repealed left and right. They had even managed to wriggle into some of the International laws he had passed with the ICW or International Confederation of Wizards. His previously excellent standing in the International Community was now being called into question if you could believe that.

While he ultimately planned to replace members of the ICW that disagreed with him, he could not have them messing with anything until then. What he needed was a distraction, something that would restore his standing among them, but also keep them occupied and busy enough not to bother him until he was able to execute his plan but he couldn't decide what.

Now to add to his frustration he had the tournament to worry about. Instead of something that would help his standing in the International community, it appeared it would weaken it.

Using a spell, he had learned just who each of the champions would be for each school and he was not pleased.

The Durmstrang and Beauxbatons Champions were okay with him, as they would be selecting Viktor Krum and Marie Dupris, but the Hogwarts one certainly did not make him happy.

He had been hoping that Cedric Diggory would be chosen since Harry had refused to submit his name. Cedrice would be perfect. He was the embodiment of what he wanted Hogwarts to be perceived as strong, brave, yet fair, and it certainly helped that he was handsome and charismatic.

Instead, he had learned the goblet would be picking Fleur Delacour.

This would not do at all. In addition to actually being from France she had spent more time at Beauxbatons than at Hogwarts. Even if she won that would give Beaxubatons a lot of bragging rights as a former Beauxbatons student was deemed better than all the other students at Hogwarts, making it appear that Beauxbatons was actually the better magical school.

He was well aware that Beauxbatons and Durmstrang probably were better. Many of his staff were complete idiots unfit for teaching, but were totally and blindly loyal which was exactly what he looked for when hiring.

A smart and suspicious teacher who didn't entirely subscribe to the whole "Dumbledore is the greatest wizard ever" might start snooping around and he would run the risk of them finding out about his plan.

Despite it being incredibly doubtful, he still wanted to be cautious nonetheless.

While students would lack a better education, it would be made up for in ideals by teachers that he felt agreed with his same principles and goals for the most part.

The Triwizard Tournament was a way to prove that Hogwarts truly was the best. It didn't matter if most of the students weren't as good as the average Beauxbatons or Durmstrang student. As long as he had a champion that beat the best their school could offer, that would be what people focused on.

While he tried to remind himself that it was just a simple tournament and not necessary to his greater plans, he still was upset and wanted to fix it.

He lacked the ability to change the cup's mind or remove Fleur's name from it, but there just might be a way to improve things.

There was the option to simply create another magical school and submit Cedric Diggory's name again under that so he would be guaranteed to be a champion.

Yet was it really necessary? People were sure to object and it might arouse suspicion.

He could simply claim that Hogwarts was so good that the goblet simply couldn't narrow it down to just one champion.

Yeah no one would believe that.

Actually scratch that, he was sure Hagrid at least would, the oaf.

He was just about to simply decide that his rigging the tournament just so that he could get another champion was too petty to actually do but then he had an idea and seemed to be very low risk.

It also would help create just the distraction he was looking for. It would cause a scandal, one that would definitely distract the ICW for awhile and also if he did it right, improve his image with them. Best of all, it was very low risk, with a very small chance of him being discovered or even suspected.

If he were to create multiple schools and then submitted the names of a few extra Beauxbatons students, it would make it look like Beauxbatons had actually been the one that cheated.

It would not then be too much of a leap for people to think that Beauxbatons had also cheated to make sure one of their former students was the Hogwarts Champion as well.

Therefore the reason that Fleur Delacour was the Hogwarts champion would be regarded as simply cheating at the hands of someone from Beauxbatons, in addition to them having multiple champions.

Durmstrang and likely the entire wizarding world would be offended that such activities had taken place, especially since Madame Maxime had always championed fairness and would then be caught in a major scandal.

People were already skeptical of the controversial headmistress anyway and this would only seem to prove it. As a half giant and a woman, many felt that she was untrustworthy or lacked the mental capacity to adequately run a school. This could potentially ruin her.

He'd never liked her anyway. She just didn't seem to understand the greater good and sacrifice like he did. He could live with discrediting her and magical France would no doubt still blame her for what happened, if only for allowing it to happen in the first place.

Best of all, he would never be suspected. No one would ever believe that he would actually try to help Beauxbatons win and make it even harder for Hogwarts.

He snuck down to the cup very late at night to enact his plan.

DUELDUELDE

When it came time for the cup to choose the champions, Harry waited somewhat impatiently with the girls to see who would be selected.

Dumbledore stood next to the cup waiting for the first name to pop out.

At last the cup belched fire as the first name came out.

"The Champion for Hogwarts is Fleur Delacour," Dumbledore announced.

Immediately there was clapping and cheering from not only the Hogwarts students but from the Beauxbatons students as well, who had known Fleur as all of them were around her same age and been classmates with her.

Fleur went up and passed through the door that Dumbledore directed her to.

Another name came out and Dumbledore read it.

"The Champion for Durmstrang is Viktor Krum."

Krum shrugged and went through and followed Fleur.

With the next and what Harry assumed last name Dumbledore said:

"The Champion for Beauxbatons is Marie Dupris."

Marie got up with a squeal of delight and congratulations from her classmates as she also went inside the room.

Dumbledore turned to follow them, but suddenly another name came out of the goblet unexpectedly.

As Dumbledore picked up the name and looked at it with a grim look on his face, he called:

"Roxanne Delacour!"

Roxanne looked stunned, not expecting there to be a second champion and for it to be her.

Everybody forgot to clap for her, but Madame Maxime still directed her student to go through the doors.

Just as surprised as everyone was by another Beauxbatons champion, yet another name came out of the goblet.

Dumbledore grabbed it and read: "Nicolette LePeux."

A tall blonde 7th year Beauxbatons witch stepped forward, also equally shocked as she went inside the side room as well.

Another name came out of the goblet, and this time Dumbledore asked Mr. Crouch to read it, which he did.

"Marian Dumas," he read as he tried to process his shock.

Another Beauxbatons girl got up, stunned to be chosen.

It was quite obvious something was going on, Harry thought. It seemed pretty obvious that someone in Beauxbatons had cheated and tricked the goblet into giving their school multiple champions. Fleur had had only good things to say about her former headmistress, but it didn't mean that she or someone else in their group might not be above cheating.

The names seemed to stop after that however and everyone was eager to find out just what had happened when a final name came out of the goblet.

This time a very angry looking Karkaroff grabbed it, expecting to find yet another Beauxbatons student's name on it but instead he suddenly looked rather puzzled as he asked, "Who's Peeves?"

Mary and Lucy clapped and cheered to an otherwise completely silent room.

"Hah hah, yes!" Both of them exclaimed at once.

Author's Note: I'll bet none of you saw that one coming.


	31. The First Task

Chapter 31

The First Task

As Fleur stood in the room with the other champions, she was still completely in shock as she had watched not 1 but 4 of her former classmates enter.

At first she had thought it was some sort of sick joke, but they had each assured her that they had been selected as champions, but weren't sure why.

Finally the headmasters arrived and as soon as the door had been shut, Karkaroff angrily asked of Madame Maxime, "Just what is the meaning of this Olympe? Four champions! This is an outrage."

"I swear I have no idea just what happened, I'm as at loss as you are," she claimed.

"A likely story, I wouldn't be surprised if you orchestrated the whole thing yourself and tricked the cup into giving you multiple champions. You were that desperate to win that you had to put on this travesty? You think you would simply get away with it and nobody would mind? Well I for one will not!"

"How dare you?" Madame Maxime said, now angry herself, "I would never do something so cheap just to win."

"You would if it would benefit your school," Karkaroff said bluntly, "so the cup just decided on its own to give you 4 champions?"

"I must say that I am quite upset as well," Dumbledore admitted, "I thought that we could manage to compete in this tournament fairly, but I suppose not. While I don't think that Madame Maxime would have done this, it is quite obvious that someone else from Beauxbatons did, perhaps a student or a teacher."

"What about that Peeves?" Karkaroff asked, "I'm still confused by just who he or she is. Another student at Beauxbatons perhaps?"

"No, he is actually a poltergeist at this school. I would imagine that someone managed to sneak his name into the goblet as a joke," Dumbledore replied.

"A poltergeist?" Karkaroff asked incredulously, "How could a poltergeist manage to become a champion?"

"I am not sure," Dumbledore confessed, "but I don't think we should regard him as a serious champion."

"Wait a minute, couldn't this Peeves be the one to also have messed with the goblet to pop out additional champions?" Madame Maxime asked.

"Why would Peevesy help another school win?" Peeves asked, appearing in the middle of the room.

Several people jumped back in fright.

"Were you the one to mess with the goblet poltergeist?" Karkaroff demanded.

"Peevesy would never go against Hogwarts, I am insulted you would suggest that, Peeves only put my name in, not those other Boat Baton students," Peeves said in a rare moment of seriousness.

"What makes you think we can trust you poltergeist?" Karkaroff said accusingly.

"Peeves and Hogwarts are connected," Dumbledore answered, "he isn't capable of going against it as his poltergeist abilities come from Hogwarts' own innate magic, otherwise he would be just an ordinary ghost. He in turn is obliged to protect the school and its occupants. While he can play pranks as much as he wants, he can't actually cause any lasting harm or kill anyone unless they are attacking Hogwarts. Aiding a different school to hurt Hogwarts is something he can't do, it would likely destroy him or turn him into an ordinary ghost. I know this because many headmasters over the years have tried to expel Peeves without success as while Peeves is obliged to protect the school, the school in turn protects him. The only way you could get rid of him is if you destroyed Hogwarts first."

"How would we know for sure though?" Madame Maxime asked.

"I'm confident enough in this that I am going to make Peeves an offer. If he can manage to kill me right now, I'll let him become the next headmaster," Dumbledore told him.

"You're going to get killed Dumbledore," Karkaroff admonished.

Dumbledore just stood there looking smug.

"Peevesy wants to be Professor Head, but Peeves can't," Peeves pouted.

"Why can't you?" Dumbledore asked.

"Hogwarts won't let me," Peeves answered.

"All right, it appears you've proven your point Dumbledore if only in a rather dangerous way," Karkaroff admitted.

"I'd like to know from the poltergeist just how he got his name into the goblet, that might give us an idea of how the other cheater got in all those Beauxbatons names," Crouch asked.

"Actually I believe I can shed a little light on that," Dumbledore answered, "I recently got a new pair of glasses specially made so that I could see Peeves even when he was invisible as he's been an extra pain in recent years.

I don't believe that Peeves actually put his name into the goblet for consideration at all as he had been floating directly above the goblet when his name came out of it. I actually watched him throw the piece of paper with his name on it onto the ground causing us all to believe it came from the goblet. Simple and would have been effective had I not caught him doing it. Peeves is no more a champion than I."

Peeves pouted and said, "you're ruining Peeves' fun."

Dumbledore chuckled and answered: "I know, but you aren't going to get anything past me anymore Peeves."

"I'll have to steal your glasses," Peeves replied.

"Good luck, they are magically protected to avoid you being able to do that," Dumbledore said, "I'm the headmaster here, and you are merely a nuisance that I can't get rid of."

"We'll just see Dumby," Peeves vowed as he floated off, no doubt planning a way to get back at Dumbledore.

After Peeves left, they got back to the original discussion.

"I think it still proves however that the cup was quite easy to hoodwink if the poltergeist could do it. Therefore anyone might have been able to trick the goblet," Mr. Crouch added, "and what with the Triwizard cup having stayed at Beauxbatons since the last tournament, it would have given the culprit more than adequate time to study it and figure out how to trick it."

"One of your students for example," Karkaroff suggested to Madame Maxime, "perhaps one of the champions here, who wanted to ensure that they won."

"We didn't do anything besides submit our names, we swear," Marie claimed emphatically.

"A likely story I'm sure," Karkaroff claimed sarcastically.

"I know all of these students. I used to go to Beauxbatons," Fleur said, trying to back them up, "they wouldn't do something like this."

Karkaroff raised his eyebrows and asked, "So you used to be a Beauxbatons student as well? This just gets even worse. I find it very disturbing to find that out of all the Hogwarts students that might have been chosen, a former Beauxbatons student is the one that is selected as its champion."

"I agree," Dumbledore said, "I have many fine students at Hogwarts, and while Fleur is a decent one, I find it hard to believe that she would be selected above who I feel might have been better than her."

"It's yet another strike against Beauxbatons," Karkaroff said, "under such blatant cheating I feel that I am being completely reasonable in choosing to withdraw my champion from the tournament."

"He must compete though," Mr. Crouch exclaimed, "Mr. Krum is under a binding magical contract and therefore required to compete or run the risk of losing his magic."

"I will not just sit around and simply accept such cheating!" Karkaroff yelled.

"I do believe that we should ask Mr. Krum what he wants to do," Dumbledore recommended.

Krum looked at them all for a moment before saying, "If I must compete, I must compete, I will make no argument, even though I am also concerned about the state of affairs as it may tarnish the reputation of the tournament and the respect that Beauxbatons has enjoyed."

"Well spoken," agreed Madame Maxime, "I wish to assure everyone that I had no idea this would happen and would be willing to swear an unbreakable vow to that effect."

"So would I," Marie added.

As she looked at the other girls, they all nodded as well, signifying they were willing to do so as well.

"Someone here really wants Beauxbatons to win," Mr. Crouch said, "I'd like to hear each of your oaths and afterwards make a full investigation into this. I'll also expect all of your cooperation."

"You shall be given full discretion," Dumbledore said, "I would also be happy to lend my services to make sure we find out the culprit behind this cheating scandal."

"Very well Dumbledore. I understand that this will be difficult to explain to the International Confederation of Wizards," Mr. Crouch said.

"It will be difficult but I'm sure that something can be worked out," Dumbledore confessed.

"I'd also like to lodge my own complaint with them," Karkaroff said, "in addition to taking certain actions. While my champion is obligated to compete, I am not obligated to be here to act as a judge nor allow any of my students to remain at the school to see this sham and disgrace of a tournament."

"While I am sorry to see you go, I completely understand," Dumbledore admitted, "I have suffered too as it is likely that the culprit rigged it so that a former Beauxbatons student would be my school's champion. However I feel honor bound, despite the circumstances to allow the additional Beauxbatons champions to compete, and continue to host the tournament. Since you will no longer be here I would be happy to provide lodging to Mr. Krum and his class schedule while he remains here at Hogwarts."

"Thank you Dumbledore," Karkaroff said, "while we have not always seen eye to eye, I appreciate your hospitality."

After that all the Beauxbatons students and Madame Maxime gave their unbreakable vows that they did not try to cheat or had any knowledge of someone else cheating prior to their selection by the goblet.

Fleur added her own for good measure.

Mr. Crouch thanked them, and Dumbledore offered to provide protection from any reprisals from disgruntled or angry students as there was likely to be.

Fleur headed back to the Peeves common room after they were all released.

When she got there, Harry and the girls were all waiting for her.

"So what happened?" Susan asked as soon as she entered.

She sighed and related the whole story to them.

"I can't believe that all happened. I wonder just who from Beauxbatons would have been that desperate to win?" Pansy asked.

"I'm not sure, but it's evidently a lot easier than we might have thought if Peeves could somehow be a champion," Fleur said.

Being selected seemed to have mostly been forgotten as most of the problems seemed to lay with Beauxbatons. Peeves was merely regarded as a prank, but highlighted just how easy it must be to sabotage it if Peeves could do it.

"How did Peeves manage to get selected as a champion anyway?" Gabrielle asked, "he doesn't even have any magic to trick the goblet with."

"We might be able to shed some light on that," Lucy admitted.

"We actually conspired with Peeves to do it," Mary said.

"No offense but how could two first years manage to have pulled that off," Pansy wondered.

"We've got skills," Lucy said shamelessly.

"Actually Peeves' name never went into the goblet, it just appeared to come out of it. Really we just had Peeves float there invisibly and wait until all the champions seemed to have all been selected. Then he lit a firecracker just above the cup, making it appear that the cup belched fire and blew out the piece of paper with his name on it. He was never entered at all."

"So he doesn't actually have to compete?" Susan surmised.

"Actually it wouldn't matter to him even if he did since he's dead and therefore the contract would be null and void," Mary pointed out.

"Peeves is still set on competing anyway," Lucy answered.

"This whole tournament seems a total sham anyway," Tonks said, "I can't imagine Peeves' presence making it any worse."

"That's what I'm afraid of," Fleur confessed, "I'm sure that students at Hogwarts are going to think that I cheated to make sure I represented Hogwarts, or at the very least someone made it so that I would be the Hogwarts champion and therefore don't deserve to be in the tournament at all."

"Then we'll bust their nose," Su suggested.

"I'm sure that I'll be safe around you, but what happens when I'm in class and you aren't around," Fleur said, "Dumbledore promised protection, but knowing him, it probably isn't all that great."

None of them had any immediate answer for her.

DUELDUELDE

The next morning, Fleur was forced to endure many rude comments about her as she went to go sit down by the Hogwarts students, but she wasn't the only one, she noticed.

As Marie and Roxanne sat down next to them, they remarked on receiving similar treatment.

"Everyone seems to hate us now," Roxanne remarked.

"I don't like being called a cheat," Marie answered, sounding like she was about to cry.

"It's okay, we'll get through this," Fleur consoled.

"We've already asked to be given the same schedule as you. I figure that it would be safer if all 3 of us stay together. I know the other 2 Beauxbatons champions in 7th year are already planning to do the same thing," Roxanne announced.

"That would be wonderful, just like old times," Fleur grinned.

At least there was one silver lining.

Somebody threw some food directly at the back of Marie's head at that moment, but before it could land, Krum blocked it with his hand.

"Thanks Viktor," Marie said as she saw what he had done for her.

"It is my pleasure," Krum admitted as he went to go sit down, "I would like you to know that I have requested to have the same schedules as you all and try and protect you if I can. I do not believe that any of you are cheats."

Marie actually blushed and said, "Thank you Viktor, that was awfully thoughtful of you."

He shrugged as if this was no big deal and went to go pile up his plate full of food.

It was pretty clear that Marie had a crush on Krum as she watched him eat, but he seemed totally oblivious and when he looked up from eating he glanced instead in the direction of the Gryffindor table where Hermione was.

He supposed Hermione could be considered attractive by some guys, but he was surprised that one of them would be Krum, an internationally famous Quidditch player and 2 years older than her.

Just as things were starting to calm down a bit, the mail arrived, along with the morning paper.

Susan, who had a subscription read the headlines.

"Beauxbatons Scandal at Hogwarts."

The article went on to include the entire problem, including knowledge that would have only been known inside the room last night.

Even though there appeared to be a leak of information, the article itself was even more alarming as it made certain presumptions that were advertised as fact such as the only reason that Fleur was Hogwarts Champion was because someone had cheated to make sure she did, or that Beauxbatons apparently felt they needed more than one champion in order to have a chance at winning.

The writer of the article even went so far as to claim that while Madame Maxime denied the accusations, she had secretly confessed that she was rather happy at the results later on.

"Madame Maxime would never have said anything of the sort!" Marie exclaimed angrily.

"The problem is that you can't prove that she didn't, and people are going to believe what they read," Susan pointed out.

"Just who wrote this stupid article?" Su demanded.

Susan looked at it and said, "Rita Skeeter."

"Rita Skeeter!" Pansy said angrily, "that cow!"

"I should have known," Fleur groaned, "just what we need, that woman on our case."

"What's so wrong with Rita Skeeter?" Roxanne asked.

"She's only the worst reporter on the face of the earth," Pansy claimed emphatically, "she usually just prints trash, but people seem to blindly believe whatever she writes."

"If she comes anywhere near any of you, I'll make sure she never writes again," Harry said, "Narcissa would probably buy the Daily Prophet and fire her just because she can."

"We'll see if we have to go to such extremes first," Susan said more moderately, who was as usual more reasonable than they all were.

DUELDUELDE

A week later from the the selection of the champions and Dumbledore still couldn't believe just how well his plan had worked.

There had been a minor hiccup with Peeves but he had managed to get that straightened out. The poltergeist, a recently bigger thorn in his side was finally being shown who was boss. He would not let a simple poltergeist ruin anything for him. Peeves' attempts to get back at him or steal his glasses had merely been met with failure and only served as mere amusement as he watched the poltergeist rant at him as he continually foiled his antics.

With Peeves now no longer capable of ruining things for him, the plan itself was now going perfectly.

Everyone now blamed Beauxbatons for cheating, including all the other countries in the IOC, which he had already gone to report to.

They couldn't pin any blame on any one individual, but the focus was clearly on Beauxbatons to see if they tried anything else and with himself as part of the investigation, would be able to ensure that nobody actually found out the truth.

Meanwhile Madame Maxime had tearfully thanked him last night for his willingness to support her and her students and not place blame upon them.

On the other hand, he was praised by the IOC and most other wizards for being so helpful during the scandal and remaining above petty arguments and even allowing Beauxbatons to remain at Hogwarts to compete in the tournament in spite of everything.

Hogwarts would probably lose the tournament, but it already appeared that he would actually come out ahead anyway. Nobody would blame him if Hogwarts lost, so clearly disadvantaged as he was, instead it reinforced his position as being a person of fairness and integrity.

Most importantly of all, everyone was too occupied with the scandal to really worry about him. By the time the tournament was over, his plan would already be moving forward and there would be nothing anyone could do to stop it.

DUELDUELDE

Su walked into her bedroom to find a currently naked Susan fingering herself with a couple of fingers from one hand and massaging her breasts with the other.

In a room full of horny teenage girls such activities had become common and none of them felt bad about finding each other in the act or doing it front of them for that matter.

Still they had to put up with the occasional moan or a cry of "Harry" the object of their usual fantasies.

As Su watched Susan, she asked: "What are you imagining right now?"

"Harry feeling up my boobs," Susan admitted.

"Don't all of your fantasies involve that though?" Su pointed out.

"A lot of them," Susan confessed as she pulled her fingers out.

"You should seriously just ask him to touch them," Su suggested.

"He's only just started touching my butt and that's with clothes on," Susan answered, "if I had my way I'd have him sucking my tits right now. It turns me on just thinking about it."

"I can't say that I blame you," Su volunteered, "if I had your chest, or even had a chest at all, I'd want the same thing."

She wasn't the jealous type or insecure about her body, but she still couldn't help but notice the likes of Fleur and Susan, who had already received far more than their fair share in that department.

"I'm sorry Su, but there is still plenty of you to like," Susan said consolingly.

"It's all right," Su answered, "Harry seems to really like my butt and hair at least and that's enough for me."

"I think you're beautiful Su," Susan said, "Harry is lucky to have you."

"The same to you," Su answered.

Neither of them really had any ill will towards each other by now. They regarded each other almost like sisters and would do anything for each other.

"You should just put Harry's onto your breasts and see what he does," Su answered.

Susan slipped her fingers back into her opening again.

"Stop it you're turning me on again," Susan complained.

It really was too easy to get to Susan. If she wanted to, she could entertain her with a nice erotic story with her and Harry and that would get her to orgasm at least a couple times. The fact that the telling of it turned her on as well was only an added bonus.

"Would you please just touch them for me Su?" Susan begged.

"You're seriously that desperate that you're actually asking me to feel up your boobs?" Su asked incredulously.

"Well Harry won't do it and isn't around and I want to know what it feels like for someone else besides me to," Susan answered.

Su shook her head. If Susan was really that desperate she seriously needed to take action.

"All right that's it, get your clothes on, we're going to see Harry," Su insisted.

"What are we going to go do?" Susan asked.

"We're going to go fulfill your fantasy," Su said matter of factly.

DUELDUELDE

Harry was currently making out with Gabrielle on his bed with his hand currently on her bum.

He had been quite enjoying this new found love of feeling up each girls' bum and even enjoyed having them reciprocate by touching his.

All of the girls had magnificent rears he had to admit.

Just as he thought this, Su and Susan came in.

"Mind if we cut in," Su asked.

Both he and Gabrielle broke apart.

"What do you need Su?" He asked.

"Not me, Susan, she wants you to feel up her boobs for her," Su insisted.

He was a bit shocked at such a forward statement and it took awhile for his brain to come up with a reply as he was now fixated on Susan's chest and just what they felt like.

"I know you want to," Su teased.

He looked over at Gabrielle, as he had already been occupied with her before.

"You can feel mine up afterwards Harry," Gabrielle said, "come on, what guy can resist a chest like that?"

"Well if you all really want me to," he said as he went up to Susan.

At the moment he couldn't help but think that he was probably the luckiest guy on earth right now if they were actually lining up for him to touch their breasts.

She was wearing a tight shirt that only served to make them appear even more huge. She and Fleur had the biggest breasts at Hogwarts, a fact he was keenly aware of at the moment.

Reaching up, he grasped her left boob and tested it with his hands. It was heavy, heavier than he would have thought, but still felt very nice even if it was still covered by her shirt and bra.

Now testing both of them, she asked, "What do you think?"

"They're beautiful Susan," he admitted.

She grinned and closed her eyes happily as he began to massage them.

"Is it wrong to be turned on by this?" Gabrielle asked.

"I know I am," Susan confessed, "Merlin I've been wanting this."

"I get him next after you're done," Gabrielle claimed.

At that moment, Fleur, Tonks, and Pansy came in, but whatever it is they wanted, they immediately stopped to look at the display.

"What's going on here?" Tonks asked.

"Harry has finally discovered boobs," Su said.

"You'll have to get in line if you want him to touch yours," Gabrielle answered.

It seemed each of the girls were rather eager to have him touch theirs and he wasn't about to complain about that. The girls often followed each other. When one girl did something, the others had to follow.

Thus it became a very enjoyable time of feeling up each of the girl's boobs, ranging in size from extremely small to very huge but were all quite beautiful.

When he finally decided to stop with Susan, she already had her fingers down her panties and he had a pretty good idea just what she had been doing.

"Feel free to feel them whenever you want Harry," Susan told him as she left the room.

After her came Gabrielle, then Pansy, and then Fleur.

He turned to look at Tonks after that.

"Apparently this is what the cool kids are doing," Tonks claimed as she presented his chest to him.

Placing his hands upon her chest, she asked, "You want them to be bigger or smaller Harry?"

"They're fine just the way they are," he answered.

Through all of this Su had lingered back and simply watched, but when he finished with Tonks, he looked at her:

"You want me to as well Su?" He asked.

"I don't really have anything to feel," she admitted.

"I don't care. If you want me to I will," he answered.

She nodded finally and he put his hands on them.

They were really small and he wasn't sure exactly if there was really anything to feel.

Nevertheless, Su instead grabbed his hands and put them on her butt instead.

"Right where I want them," she answered contentedly.

DUELDUELDE

For the first task, Fleur was kept largely in the dark just what she would be facing. Marie and Roxanne suspected that Madame Maxime actually knew what it was, but after the cheating scandal, she was trying to play it extra carefully in case she was accused of cheating again.

Therefore when Fleur stood in the tent with the other champions, she was entirely surprised as they were told that they would be fighting dragons in order to get a golden egg from them.

She was however not too pleased to find that she had drawn the Hungarian Horntail.

Resigning herself to her fate, she tried to come up with a strategy as her fellow competitors went out.

Judging from the screams and roars of the crowd as well as the commentary done by Bagman, she knew that they had had varying success in handling the dragons.

DUELDUELDE

Peeves was quite upset at having been told that he wasn't allowed to compete as a champion. That furry coated professor head of that other school had called his name along with those students. He was a Hogwarts Champion, and he wasn't about to let anyone rain on his parade of fun.

He watched invisibly as the various champions competed as they made completely fools of themselves running from the dragon, taking a ridiculous amount of time in his opinion in order to get to their golden eggsy.

If he were allowed to compete he could simply get that eggsy in no time. Forget Dumby and his saying he wasn't a champion, he had decided that whatever Dumby didn't want him to do he should definitely be doing. The barmy old codger was ruining all of his fun. He was even starting to foil some of his pranks. Curse him and his new glasses.

Besides those dragons didn't look so scary, in fact they should be free so they could go around and torment all those people staring at them for their own amusement.

He silently cheered each dragon on as they faced down each competitor only to be disappointed when they got their eggsy.

One of the champions, however, some frilly girl ended up getting burnt all over by the dragon, and the dragon handlers had to come in and save her.

Well if she was going to go get barbecued, she wouldn't need her golden eggsy he reasoned. He wondered if the golden egg even had chocolate inside. Didn't all golden eggsies have chocolate inside?

There was only one way to find out.

Floating on over, the dragon was still intent on the girl, not yet taken out by the dragon handlers.

"Hey dragon," Peeves taunted as he floated right up to the dragon's face and grabbed its nose, requiring both hands in order to encircle it, "I got your conk."

The dragon snorted in annoyance as it let off a small burst of flame.

"Missed me," he teased, the fire of course having done no damage to him.

Flying over to its nest, he grabbed up the golden egg before holding it in front of the dragon.

"I gots your chocolate eggsy," he taunted.

The dragon, not able to distinguish a golden egg from one of its real ones, instantly got mad and swiped at him with one of its claws.

"Too slow," Peeves said.

"I'm going to name you Skippy, Skippy the dragon," Peeves said.

The dragon took another swipe at him.

"What? Don't like your name Skippy?" Peeves asked.

Taking the time to then address the audience, he bowed and waved as he shamelessly hammed his performance up.

He was ready to play with the dragon some more but then the spoil sport dragon handlers put the beasty to sleep.

"Hey I was having fun with the beasty," he argued.

"Get out of here Peeves, you aren't a champion," Dumbledore roared using a magically louder voice.

"I won professor head, Peevesy and Hogwarts won," Peeves claimed as he took the eggsy with him. He had what he had come for and even done better than all those other wannabe champions.

DUELDUELDE

Fleur still inside the tent knew nothing of just had transpired with Peeves, she had still been mentally preparing herself.

When she was finally called out, she had had time to come up with a decent strategy.

That didn't mean that when she first saw the dragon that she wasn't worried.

The huge black dragon right in front of her was more than a little intimidating, as it could easily swallow her whole, burn her to a crisp, cut her in half with its tail...

Such thoughts really weren't helping for what she was about to do.

At least she had an advantage over the other competitors being a veela, and she hoped that such a plan would work. Quite obviously she had never tried it on a dragon, just heard that it would work.

She began to sing, using her veela magic to no doubt catch the attention of every available male in the stadium around her, but also hopefully catch the attention of the dragon.

The dragon looked at her as she put all of her magic into just the dragon as she willed it to go to sleep.

While the dragon's eyes seemed to go dim as it was getting more than a little drowsy, it didn't appear to be strong enough for it to actually go to sleep.

She cast a sleeping spell directly at each of its eyes, trying to encourage it to sleep.

Finally after a nervous couple of minutes, the dragon finally fell asleep.

Realizing that this was her chance, she ran directly towards the nest of eggs it had been protecting and quickly grabbed the golden egg before rushing off again.

Before she totally got away however, the dragon let off a burst of flame in its sleep, burning her back and causing her to wince in pain.

Still she did not stop running until she had made it to the medical tent.

"Goodness me, you children get injured far too often already and now we have to add dragon's into the mix," Madame Pomfrey said as she went to go look at her back.

Peeling off her now burnt robes causing her to wince in pain again, Madame Pomfrey looked her over.

"I'll need to apply a burn salve, but you should be as good as new soon," the healer told her.

Nodding, she watched as she went to go get the salve and also noticed that she wasn't the only one currently being treated. Marian Dumas and Nicolette LePeux, 2 of the Beauxbatons champions were also there, and they looked in much worse shape than herself.

Marian was absolutely covered in bandages like a mummy, and the only reason she even recognized her was because of a still damaged pair of shoes that belonged to her.

Nicolette on the other hand had a large bandage on her stomach as well.

At that moment, Harry snuck into the tent.

"How are you doing Fleur?" He asked her worriedly.

"I'm fine, just a burn, Madame Pomfrey says it should be good as new once it's treated," she answered.

Madame Pomfrey then came back and told Harry, "You really can't be in here Harry while I treat my patient."

"Madame Pomfrey? How about you have Harry apply the salve to my back and you work on your other patients? They look like they are in far worse shape than me," Fleur suggested.

Madame Pomfrey hesitated but then finally nodded, instructing Harry on what to do before going to check on Marian.

As he began rubbing it gently into her back, he took the time to explain just what had happened with the other competitors.

"Marie and Krum cast the conjunctivitis curse on the dragon's eyes, but it only partially worked since Krum actually caused his dragon to squash some of its real eggs, and Marie took a really long time and had to cast it several times for it to actually take effect. Roxanne transfigured several rocks into deer to distract the dragon, but the dragon headed back to the nest when it noticed her making a move on it and on her way back the dragon hit her with its tail and knocked her out.

Marian tried to distract the dragon as well but the dragon didn't fall for it and she got burned to a crisp while trying to get her egg. We were told that she should be fine but it's going to take awhile before she fully recovers. Peeves actually saved her life. If it hadn't been for him distracting the dragon, she likely would be dead."

He related to her the story of Peeves saving Marian and stealing her golden egg before getting back to the last champion before her to compete.

"Nicolette on the other hand got slashed with its tail before she could really do whatever it was she was planning. She should be fine soon as well," He concluded.

"What about the scores?" She asked.

"You're currently tied for first with Marie with 45 points, Krum got 42, Roxanne 40, Marian 25, and Nicolette 20.

If they had allowed Peeves to compete though and actually gave him scores he would definitely deserve to be in the lead. He got past Marian's dragon even while the dragon cast fire directly at him, and got to the golden egg in like 30 seconds flat without a scratch on him. He would have made it back just as quickly but he couldn't resist hamming it up for the crowd as he bowed and waved."

Fleur laughed, even though it caused her to wince in pain again.

"I wish I had been there to see it," she announced.

"Right now we've got to focus on you," he insisted as he continued to apply the salve.

"How is it healing?" She asked.

"Pretty good, its more just very red now than actually burnt," he told her, "did you get hurt anywhere else?"

She grinned and said, "Yes, I think the dragon got my bum as well, it might be a good idea to check it out just in case."

He laughed but said, "I really don't think this is the time or place for that. Madame Pomfrey is right over there."

She pretended to pout but then said, "Well then suit yourself."

Of course Harry couldn't resist as he squeezed her arse anyway through her skirt.

"I knew you couldn't help yourself," she answered cheekily.

"I was merely doing what every guy at Hogwarts yearns to do every time they see it," he answered.

He slowly began to massage it some more when suddenly a bright flash of light interrupted them.

Turning they saw both a cameraman and Rita Skeeter, the reporter who she had seen before back during the weighing of the wands ceremony.

Fortunately Rita hadn't been interested in her at the time but instead wrote a nasty follow up article about the Beauxbatons scandal where the Beauxbatons champions were all now working together to make sure they won by "any means necessary" according to Rita's version of Marie, who of course had said nothing of the sort, and caused her to cry when she read that part of the article.

"Well isn't that a lovely photo," she said happily.

"I'll sue you if you print that," Harry insisted.

"The people have a right to know just who you're...involved with, Harry," Rita argued, "besides I'm legally allowed to print whatever I want by the ministry of magic. Freedom of speech."

Harry looked angry, but she decided that if Rita Skeeter really wanted to tell all of Britain that her arse was Harry's, then more power to her.

"Just leave it alone Harry," she told him consolingly, "It's not like guys haven't taken pictures of me before and circulated them around Hogwarts, and this only proves that I'm totally taken by you."

She also whispered into his ear about her bum being his.

"You need to leave," Madame Pomfrey said, walking over to Rita.

"I was merely making sure that the champions were okay," Rita countered, even though they all knew that it was merely a very poor excuse.

"You're walking a very thin line," Harry warned Rita, "you push me and I'll make sure that you're out of a job."

She grinned and said, "We'll just see about that."

After her and the cameraman left the tent, Harry was still upset.

"I'm tempted to just buy up the daily prophet and fire her right now," he said angrily.

"She does have a point though. In the Wizarding World, a person is legally allowed to print whatever they want, even if it is untruthful and libelous," Fleur answered.

Harry sighed and said, "Yet another law to get fixed. The wizarding world is so messed up."

"Well get Narcissa and Amelia to change the law or get her canned then, I'm sure Narcissa would be happy to do it," she answered.

"I'm sure she would, but I'd like to handle her personally," he said emphatically.

"I love it when you try and go be the hero and protect me," she said kissing him.

"I don't want anyone to ever hurt you," he claimed, "if Rita publishes that photo, she's getting nailed, I don't care."

DUELDUELDE

To both of their surprise, Rita did not publish the photo, as either she really was scared of his threat or she had just found a better story.

Indeed the article actually praised Fleur for seeing the error of her ways in having left evil Beauxbatons for Hogwarts and done well in the first task, despite the only reason she was even there was because Beauxbatons had cheated to make sure she was the Hogwarts Champion. Rita even made it seem like it was a battle of good versus evil, Fleur the lone dissenter from Beauxbatons who was fighting against the many champions that the corrupt Beauxbatons had made in order to ensure victory.

"I can't believe she would try to write such garbage," Susan asked angrily as she put down the paper having just read the article aloud.

"In my country," Krum claimed, having been sitting close enough to listen in, "we have our own way of dealing with people like her. We tie them up to a post in the town square and throw rotten food at them. It is embarrassing and smelly for them and entertaining for the rest of us."

"As tempting as that sounds I had another idea for her," Harry answered.

"What did you have mind?" Pansy asked.

"Only our secret weapon, what else?" Harry asked.

Each of the girls grinned and said simultaneously, "Peeves."

They could only imagine what horribly fun things Harry had thought up for Peeves to do to her.


	32. Bath Time

Author's Note: This chapter has rather a lot of more mature content in it as Harry and the girls explore their growing sexuality. I doubt many of you actually care and will probably read it anyway, but this is fair warning. Also I just hit 1k reviews and 300k views! This story has far exceeded my expectations for it, so thanks to everyone who has reviewed, favorited, or author alerted this story.

Chapter 32

Bath Time

As Fleur opened her golden egg for perhaps the 100th time, she was once again greeted by the now all too familiar screeching sound.

She was really getting tired of hearing it but she needed to figure out what the clue meant.

"Would you please just put that thing away?" Pansy yelled while she had her ears covered.

"Sorry," Fleur said after she had closed it.

"I really hope you get that clue sorted out before we all lose our hearing," Susan said, now more than a little annoyed.

"Unless you've got any bright ideas for just what the clue could be I don't really see any other way around it," Fleur claimed.

"Well I hardly think opening it again is going to help," Tonks said.

"I wonder if any of the other champions have figured it out yet," Fleur questioned.

"It's only been a week, I'd say the clue should take a lot longer than that to figure out," Harry reasoned.

"Did someone say clue?" Peeves asked as he floated into the common room.

Of course, Fleur thought, the House Peeves weekly meeting was supposed to begin soon.

"Fleur is still trying to figure out that golden egg clue," Pansy admitted to Peeves.

"That's easy, Peeves knew immediately when he opened his," Peeves claimed.

"You mean you already figured it out?" Fleur asked incredulously.

"You mind just telling Fleur then?" Pansy asked.

"Wouldn't that be cheating?" Susan pointed out.

"According to the official rules, a champion may receive help from fellow students from their same school in order to prepare for a task," Su pointed out.

While some of Su's other talents tended to show more, she was actually quite a bit smarter than people realized. She read voraciously, and she was always the type to try and exploit the system, such as now.

"Well that means we can help but it makes no mention of poltergeists," Susan answered.

"Exactly my point, tell us about the clue Peeves and I'll help you get back at Dumbledore in return," Su said to Peeves.

Peeves grinned a smile far wider than he should be capable of and said, "It's Mermy Music. They've got beautiful singing voices, better than Peeves even when they sing in the open air, but you can't tell what they are singing unless you are underwater."

"So I guess I just have to put the egg underwater to find out what the clue is," Fleur guessed.

Peeves nodded.

"All right, well then let's go down to the lake," Susan said.

"I'd rather just use the prefect's bathtub, I hate being underwater and that bathtub is bad enough," Fleur replied.

While Fleur didn't mind actually being in or near water, having her head under had always been really difficult for her, being a veela.

"Then we can't come with you, you're the only one who's a prefect," Gabrielle pointed out.

Since Fleur was the only one actually old enough to hold the position, she had been made the Peeves Prefect.

"I guess one of you could come with me under my invisibility cloak," Harry suggested.

"Then I think Tonks should be the one to go seeing as how she's the oldest and probably would be the most help," Pansy said, "meanwhile we'll work on a plan to help Peeves get back at Dumbledore."

"Agreed," Fleur said.

DUELDUELDE

Twenty minutes later found the three of them entering the prefect's bathroom.

Fleur locked the door behind them so they wouldn't be disturbed.

Yet as they were about to start changing in a couple of the stalls, Fleur exclaimed, "Grrr...I forgot to bring a bathing suit."

"How could you forget to bring one?" Tonks asked.

"I don't usually think to bring a bathing suit when I'm going to take a bath," Fleur pointed out.

"You can just use your underwear," Harry suggested.

"Or go starkers," Tonks said before grinning over at Harry, "I'd bet you'd like that wouldn't you Harry?"

He couldn't help blushing at that.

"On or off Harry?" Fleur asked, now clad only in her panties and bra.

His brain and another part of his anatomy warred with each other, but that other part finally won out.

"Off," he finally stammered.

She snapped off her bra first and pulled it off slowly, allowing him to have his full concentration on her before taking it off completely.

He was immediately taken with the first pair of naked breasts he had ever seen. The fact that they were also very large also served to be of great interest to him.

Her nipples were bigger than he would have guessed and her breasts fuller, her bra having always covered the most perfect breasts he could imagine.

Until now.

She then began removing her panties for him.

This was actually something he was more curious about, as he had never actually seen exactly just what a girl's vagina looked like, only had it described to him.

He wasn't entirely sure just how to react to seeing it, only that he was reminded that this was the most special and well hidden part of a girl's body, coveted by every man as this was what was needed for sex. He couldn't help but imagine putting his penis into it. Although he wasn't sure how it would exactly fit inside, succeeding in doing so was (at least according to Seamus back when he was in Gryffindor) what made a boy a man and was the most important thing that he would ever do.

Just as he was thinking this, she turned around so that he could look at her bum.

Like all the rest of her body, her bum was absolutely perfect.

At the sight of the beautifully naked veela now standing in front of him, he couldn't help but simply stare at her body, now totally bared to him.

"What do you think?" She asked.

"Perfection," Harry answered, it was what was on his mind and was the only real way to describe her.

Fleur blushed and said, "Thank you."

"If you're perfect what does that make me?" Tonks asked.

So focused on Fleur, he hadn't even noticed until Tonks drew attention to herself that she had already came out from the stall where she had been allegedly still changing, not wearing swimwear, but also totally naked.

She was no longer in her Atlantean body however, it appeared to be purely Tonks from back when she had actually shown her regular body to him.

Her ebony black hair descended to below her hips, and she had a very nice, toned athletic body that nevertheless was still somewhat curvy, not nearly as pronounced as Fleur, but still had a nice figure nonetheless.

"I figured I couldn't simply let Fleur get all the attention," she claimed.

"You're just as sexy Tonks," Harry told her.

"Do you like me better now?" She asked.

He watched as her breasts began to rapidly grow, starting from their normal 28D size.

When they finally stopped, they were fantastically huge.

"I'd say they are about a 28K now," Tonks claimed as she hefted them for his benefit.

"That's seriously just showing off," Fleur replied.

"I couldn't resist getting some of that attention he's been paying you this whole time," Tonks answered.

"Yes but I have to carry mine around all the time, you can just make them huge whenever you want," Fleur told her.

"Life isn't fair is it?" Tonks said.

Tonks sighed and returned them to their original size.

"It's kind of hard to keep up with a veela," Tonks admitted.

"Even harder to keep up with a metamorphmagus," Fleur quipped.

"Are you girls fighting or something?" Harry asked, now slightly worried.

"Not really, we're both just trying to get all of your attention," Tonks said, "I can't really blame Fleur and I doubt she blames me. This is kind of a big moment for any girl, to show her body to her boyfriend or lover for the first time."

"You know, you didn't have to do this in order to maintain your cover," Harry said.

"I didn't want you to see me naked in order to maintain my cover, I did it because I consider you to be my boyfriend. Like I said, it's a big moment for me," she answered.

"Does that mean that we...?" He asked hesitantly.

He hadn't even been aware that she felt that strongly about him. She had always teased him about it, but he had always thought that it was merely teasing as she was indeed much older than him.

"Let me see if I can put it this way," she said, "I either just exposed myself to you for no reason or you're my boyfriend, so which is it going to be?"

"You do realize that you're going to have to do a lot of sharing?" He pointed out.

"I can live with a little competition," Tonks said looking over at Fleur, grinning.

"Girlfriend then," He answered.

Her grin got bigger and she went and gave him a big kiss. The fact that they were both naked was also cause for consideration.

He reddened deeply as his new (old?) girlfriend drew apart from him.

"Well I'll admit I didn't see that one coming but congratulations Tonks," Fleur told her.

"I haven't agreed to marry him or anything. Unlike the rest of you, I've still got a choice in the matter but we'll see how it goes," she claimed.

"Come on, let's get into the tub unless Harry wants to keep ogling our bodies," Fleur said.

Allowing himself one last long look at each of the two sexy older witches, he said, "I think I'm going to need a very cold bath or shower right now anyway."

The two girls both laughed and they began filling up the tub.

During this time, Harry used the opportunity to unabashedly stare at the girls some more, who were quite pleased at the attention he was lavishing upon them.

After it was almost to the top, they shut it off and they all got in.

Fleur put the golden egg underneath the water, and the 3 of them put their heads underwater to see what it was saying.

He listened carefully as it began to sing in a quite beautiful woman's voice that he guessed was a mermaid's.

After listening through the whole song, not once but twice they managed to come up with some conclusions with what it meant.

"Well it appears that you're going to have only an hour to rescue something of yours that you most value from the merpeople," Tonks concluded.

Fleur however, looked deathly pale.

"I can't be under the lake for that long, there is absolutely no way. Stupid Atlantis a few summers ago was bad enough, and I wasn't even actually in water," Fleur said, "I don't even like being underwater in this bathtub!"

She actually began to cry, and Harry felt sorry for her. Veelas hated being underwater with a passion, and Fleur was no exception.

Without actually thinking about it, he reached around and hugged her to try and comfort her.

Immediately though, he regretted it, as he suddenly became intensely aware of the fact that she was still naked.

She didn't even seem to care however and hugged him back anyway.

"Don't pull away Harry, that feels nice," Fleur told him.

Deciding that if she didn't mind and it seemed to comfort her, he chose not to pull away, even if he could actually feel her naked breasts pushing directly into his uncovered torso, not that he was complaining of course.

"Not to interrupt in case you two are busy, but what are you going to do about the 2nd task?" Tonks asked.

"I guess I'll just have to do my best and see if I can still manage it," Fleur admitted.

"You were nearly freaking out just now before you even got in the water though," Harry pointed out, "and you can't even use magic at all underwater can you?"

"No, the water dampens it so that I can't use it. Most wizards have problems underwater, but for me, I would have to rely upon just what I can do physically," Fleur replied.

"What if you run into anything dangerous? You'll be killed if you go down into that lake," Harry said, now quite worried for her.

"You think I don't know that!" Fleur snapped, "I can't just give up though and refuse to compete now can I?"

The three of them tried coming up with an idea, but Harry could not come up with anything as Fleur was still hugging him and the only thing that he could still think of was the fact that Fleur had her naked body pressed against him.

His now ragingly erect cock was straining at the contact and it yearned to be touched. Unfortunately he could not very well do that while Fleur was still hugging him, since it and her own matching anatomy were only separated by his swim trunks.

"Um Fleur?" He tried to say.

"Yes Harry?" Fleur answered.

"Yes, this is great being this close and all, but it's kind of um...hot and I kind of need to um...well you know, touch myself." He began.

"Merlin, I'm glad you brought that up, I've been thinking the same thing this whole time, I just didn't know how to say it," Fleur admitted.

They moved away from each other and got out of the huge bathtub and dried themselves off with towels and Tonks immediately got out as well.

"Do you want to watch each other do it?" Fleur asked.

He thought about it and then decided after the many boundaries he felt he had crossed tonight, what could another hurt?

Fleur began inserting fingers into hersel, and Tonks soon did the same.

It was fascinating and also arousing to watch them do it, and he quickly slipped his hand inside his swim trunks as he grasped his now fully erect cock.

Now without even needing to fantasize as he had two very beautiful naked women even better than any fantasy he might have had about them, he began to handle it.

He also was even more turned on as Fleur and Tonks began to feel up their own bodies with their unused hand.

As he watched Fleur squeeze her breast, she asked him, "Don't you like touching anything else?"

"Men usually get most of their stimuli just from their penis, where women it can be more all over," Tonks answered for him, "although it doesn't strike me as fair that he gets to watch us while he's still covering up the most important part."

"You want to see me naked Tonks?" Harry asked.

"Duh," she said as if this was obvious, "I've just been totally guessing when it comes to that part of you."

He had never shown his naked body to them before, and he was sure that the other girls would most likely be jealous, but since they had already shown him theirs, he supposed it was only fair.

Grabbing his swim trunks, he pulled them down for them to see.

As both of them gazed upon his erect cock, Tonks couldn't help admitting, "Yeah that's definitely way bigger than I had imagined.

"Is it supposed to be that big?" Fleur asked in wonder.

"Well it's definitely big, especially for a young teenage boy," Tonks replied, "at least as far as I know. Nevertheless that thing is definitely going to give me some pleasant fantasies and keep us all satisfied when it comes to that."

Now all totally naked, they continued in their mutual masturbation session.

He could tell that both Fleur and Tonks had already orgasmed at least once before he felt the pressure begin to build up as he released stream after stream of cum. He had been more turned on than he ever had before.

"Oh my gosh," Fleur exclaimed as she watched.

After he was done, he realized that he had spilled cum on the ground and quickly went and grabbed his wand and cleaned it up with magic.

"Well that was certainly fun," Tonks said.

"Most definitely," Fleur agreed, "we are so doing that again soon."

"I guess I could live with that," he agreed.

While they still hadn't gone all the way, ever since Pansy's talk with him, he had been much more willing to indulge in trying new sexual experiences.

"Well I suppose I should really tell the other girls about this," Harry said.

"Actually I think maybe we should keep this our little secret at least for the time being," Tonks suggested.

"They won't be happy if they find out that we've been hiding it from them," Harry pointed out.

"I think it would be best that we hold off on that for a few weeks until Susan's birthday. I think, if you would be willing Harry, you can do something rather special for her," Tonks said,

"What?" He asked.

"You'll see," Tonks said mysteriously, "I'll help you work on it. Until then we should probably keep coming down here every night and see if we can help Fleur work out her water problem. I'd use the lake, but there are bound to be people around who might notice what we are up to, including other champions. Besides we'll want to start out smaller than that huge lake."

He nodded. He agreed with that part.

"Of course the fact that we would be free to watch us stimulate ourselves is also a benefit," Tonks added.

"I know of a way to at least be able to breathe underwater," Fleur said, referring to the second task again, "I could always use a bubble charm, but I can't guarantee that I'll be able to maintain it if my magic doesn't work underwater."

"We'll just have to work on that too," Tonks answered, "but all in all I'd say this was a really, really good night. I wish we'd done this a long time ago."

"I'll let you touch me next time if you'd like Harry," Fleur offered.

"No, not yet, if we are going to keep doing this secretly until Susan's birthday it should be a look but don't touch policy between us. I already feel badly enough as it is keeping it a secret, but it will be necessary if the plan I have for Susan is going to be as special for her," Tonks answered.

Personally he wasn't sure just how far he really wanted to go anyway. What they had done had been nice and he would definitely be willing to do it again but he didn't feel like he should go too far too fast.

Fleur looked curious as to just what the plan was, but did not ask what it was just yet.

When all of them finally got back to the Peeves Common room, Pansy asked how it went.

"Pretty good," was all Harry would say.

Over the next couple of weeks, in addition to his sessions with Fleur and Tonks, they also worked on improving Fleur's ability to handle being underwater, but they soon realized that it just wasn't going to work. Even if she could calm down, she still wouldn't be able to use magic and he was pretty sure she was going to need that for the task at some point.

While Fleur could always use the bubblehead charm, he felt like she might need something else as she wasn't a particularly good swimmer and it might take far longer than the time she was being given to rescue whatever it was she was supposed to get down in the lake.

This ultimately forced him to look through the parseltongue book that he had found down clear back in 2nd year in the chamber of secrets.

Fleur wouldn't be able to read or use it, but he suspected that she should still be able to use the spells if he taught her what to say.

He had largely ignored the book since people had such a strong animosity towards parselmouths, but desperate times called for desperate measures.

In looking through it, he found that the book was still in excellent condition, despite likely being over 1000 years old and handwritten by Salazar Slytherin himself, probably as the result of some sort of preservation spell on it.

It was all entirely in some weird language which he guessed was parseltongue, but he still had little difficulty reading it as it appeared to be English to him unless he concentrated really hard on it.

Many spells that he found in the book were quite gruesome, such as turning someone's entire body inside out, but others could be quite useful such as one that allowed you to fly without a broom.

He found one that would turn someone into a small sea serpent, but that really wouldn't be of much use if Fleur couldn't retain her own ability to think.

Then he finally found something.

It was a switching spell of sorts, meant to change an elemental humanoid creature into another. It wouldn't work for ordinary humans but it should work on Fleur as a veela and a creature of fire. In theory, she should become a creature of water if she used the spell on herself.

Since Slytherin, who had apparently been capturing unsuspecting mermaids in the lake and turning them into veela for his own enjoyment was able to do it, he figured the opposite should hold true.

Personally he hoped that the merpeople had forgotten about that by now or he couldn't blame them for being angry.

When he showed Fleur and Tonks the book, they immediately hurried over to the Prefect's Bathtub to try it out.

"I wonder what you'll look like as a mermaid," Tonks wondered.

"Personally I wonder if I could become something else where I'm not a veela or a mermaid," Fleur claimed.

"Well you could become a giant talking worm or a metabug, part flying bug, part human," Harry suggested, as those were the other types of creatures that she could become.

Fleur frowned and said, "I think I'll stick with being a veela."

He taught Fleur exactly what to say in parseltongue and she said it, although it sounded to him like "Fire-water change."

"That just sounds really creepy," Tonks confessed, who only heard hissing.

Pointing her wand at it, she finally managed to succeed in giving herself a slight tinge of green skin.

Over the next few hours, she began to get closer and closer until finally with a pop, she turned into a mermaid.

"Get me into the water," she rasped as she struggled to get into the water.

Harry suspected that merpeople needed to always be in water in order to live.

Both he and Tonks shoved her into the water as she began to feel much better.

"This feels really weird," She confessed as she swam around the huge bathtub, and tested out her new tail.

"Well it should allow you to swim pretty fast especially if you practice," Harry claimed.

"I can't seem to breathe very well in the air anymore, I think I still can but not for very long," Fleur concluded.

She ducked her head underwater for awhile before coming back up again.

"The fear of being underwater is also completely gone, in fact I seem to actually prefer it now more than the open air," Fleur confessed.

"That's really good then," Harry answered, "just what we need."

"I'll have to keep working on the spell and practice my swimming, but eventually I should be able to move to the actual lake, maybe even locate the mervillage so I already know where it is."

"Sounds like a plan," Tonks agreed.

DUELDUELDE

Harry felt rather guilty not telling the other girls about what he was doing with Fleur and Tonks, but he told himself that it was only for a few weeks, and he reasoned he didn't have to tell them absolutely everything that went on in his life as soon as it happened.

Besides he was in a bit of quandary when it came to it anyway. He'd admittedly love to have the other girls join in, but he also wasn't sure that they would all be ready for something like that but if Fleur or Tonks was already doing it with him, then it became a problem as they would no doubt feel pressured and he didn't want that.

Nevertheless he felt grateful when he could finally tell the other girls when Susan wasn't around the day before her birthday.

After Tonks explained to them all just what had been going on, Pansy immediately asked:

"How come you didn't tell us before now?"

"We just didn't want Susan getting suspicious, and I wanted to be sure that you would all be okay with it and whether you wanted to join in before I brought it up," Tonks admitted.

"So that's why you were asking me just how far I would be willing to go physically in my relationship," Gabrielle realized.

"Exactly," Tonks confirmed, "the problem with our multiple relationships with Harry is that invariably when we sort of up the ante so to speak when it comes to the next level in our relationship, we all automatically conclude that we have to match it. Since we've been progressing a lot lately, I wanted to get a feel for just how far each of you were willing to go, the most important of course being Harry himself. So if none of you mind, this is the data that I collected on each of you. As for me, I'd be willing to let Harry do just about anything besides actual intercourse, Fleur would do everything including intercourse, Pansy is willing to do anything as well but she would rather wait before sex, Su would let Harry touch her and give him blowjobs if he wants one but nothing beyond that, and Gabrielle and Susan also want to wait for intercourse but are fine with anything else. As for Harry himself, he hasn't yet told me."

Harry was admittedly surprised. He hadn't been expecting all the girls to be willing to go that far. Now he felt guilty as he wasn't entirely sure he wanted to go that far, and now he was worried if perhaps he was some sort of freak for feeling that way. He was surrounded by beautiful girls who were practically throwing themselves at him and he now knew that he could do almost anything with them, and yet he was apparently the one who wanted to hold back. It was supposed to be the guy that tried to get his girlfriend to do stuff, not the other way around, right?

"Personally I think we should just take it one step at a time, and not rush into anything," He finally answered, "I like how fast things are going but I don't want to move too fast in case anyone decides that they really didn't want to go as far as they thought. Now that I know how each of you feel I think it would be okay for all of us to do what me, Fleur, and Tonks were already doing."

"You also agreed to give Susan a breast massage for her birthday remember," Fleur pointed out.

"Yeah, but that would be a special occasion," Harry defended.

While he knew that the girls might be disappointed that he didn't want anything further, he wasn't really sure what to do. Things already seemed to be moving plenty fast enough for him, but he didn't feel that he had an adequate enough excuse not to.

Or did he?

He had been using his promising Amelia that he wouldn't do anything with the girls until they were older as an excuse for quite awhile, so perhaps he could do so again. If he simply told Amelia what was going on and then report that she had said no that would give him an adequate excuse. He could say that she had suspected something and coerced him into telling her but that would be dishonest.

However the bottom line was he needed someone to talk to that wasn't one of the girls right now, an adult who might understand just where he was coming from and who he trusted enough to give good advice. He was pretty sure that Narcissa and Sirius would encourage him to go for it and wonder why he hadn't already, Sirius had even taught him the contraception charm just in case before school had started and even offered to give him sex pointers but he had refused.

That left Amelia, who had always encouraged him to wait. She might very well be upset that he was doing anything at all with the girls besides kissing, but he felt that if she really did still think that now that they actually were older, than perhaps she had a point. She certainly had more life experience than him.

Wow, a teenager actually telling what he viewed as a parent about his sexual exploits and actually willing to follow their advice even if it was to cease and desist. That sounded both mature and responsible... and also rather stupid.

Nevertheless, after the meeting was broken up, Harry headed into his bedroom and activated the two way mirror that Sirius had given him for his birthday so that they could communicate.

Once Sirius had come on, Sirius asked, "Hey what's up pup?"

"I kind of need some advice and I was wondering if Amelia was around?" Harry asked.

"Sure thing pup," Sirius said as he went to go give Amelia the mirror.

"What do you need Harry?" She asked as her face appeared in the mirror.

"Could you make sure that we're alone, I kind of need to talk to you privately," He confessed.

After making sure that Sirius had left, she then gave him permission to proceed.

He related the whole tale to her, leaving nothing out, including what he had already been doing with Tonks and Fleur and his worries about going too far and feeling pressured.

She chose to just listen to him, making no comment until he had finally finished.

"First of all I just want to say that I don't blame you for whatever you've already done," she stated, "I understand the pressure that you might have felt. When I was your age and then all the rest of my time at Hogwarts, some of my friends started doing things with their boyfriends and some of them actually regretted it. They thought they were ready when it turned out they weren't. The fact that some of the guys dumped them as soon as they had had sex with them certainly didn't help. I had watched them go through this and already decided that I would never allow a guy to go beyond kissing me.

However when I started dating Sirius back in 5th year, I found that decision to be a lot harder. I knew that Sirius was wanting to take things further, and even though he didn't necessarily try to pressure me into it, I still felt guilty that I just wasn't willing to go that far in our relationship. That came more from my friends who pointed out that Sirius was such a great guy and that if I didn't agree to do stuff with him that he might break up with me. I was terrified that that might happen.

I almost gave in, I really almost did, but instead I chose to talk to Sirius about it and told him my feelings. He actually was quite understanding and said that he wasn't in a relationship just for sex, but because he genuinely cared for and enjoyed spending time with me. He allowed me to decide just how far I wanted to go and I was quite grateful to him for that.

My point is with this story is that in a relationship, there will always be certain boundaries each partner is willing to go. The fact that you are in a relationship with multiple girls that are all willing to go much farther than you would feel comfortable with makes it significantly tougher I'll grant you, but it doesn't mean that you should have to feel bad. I'm sure all of the girls love you and not just for sex and you've already told them that you get to decide just how far all of you go on multiple occasions.

They've accepted that so you shouldn't have to feel guilty. I'm sure that they understand. Also because you chose to come to me with this and accept anything I suggested you do, that tells me that I can trust you. Do you want to know why I think you're perfect for all of them?"

"Why?" He asked.

"Most guys would have already taken advantage of the situation and them, but not you. You treat them with respect and as equals and friends. You don't want to hurt them, and are willing to take things slower than what they might feel they are ready for just in case. They are pressured even more than you because they are constantly having to compete against each other for your attention, and so what they say they are ready for, may be entirely different from what they are really ready for, so it is good that you always stay well within their comfort zone. Best of all, I'm glad that when you feel pressured that you are willing to actually talk with them, or even me about it. I can honestly say that I'm proud that Susan is marrying you."

He was very grateful that Amelia was being so helpful and understanding and so he asked:

"So what do you think I should do?" He asked.

"I think that no matter what, you be the one to decide what you want to do and no one else. Then whatever line you draw, you refuse to cross it until you're ready," Amelia explained, "you are worried about something else, you are always free to come and talk to me, or even Sirius and Narcissa if you'd prefer one of them."

"Thanks Amelia," Harry answered gratefully.

"Also when you are ready for sex, which hopefully won't be for awhile, I would appreciate it if you would at least tell me first," Amelia told him.

"Don't worry, I will," He agreed.

"Another thing, if you are really going to go through for your plans with my niece for her birthday tomorrow, make sure that you are careful. I trust you and her, but you are still young teenagers and sometimes you can go a bit further than you might intend," Amelia said.

He nodded. Amelia was being very understanding and accepting but it didn't mean that she couldn't act like a parent.

"I'll try to treat her with the respect she deserves," He admitted.

"I would expect nothing less," She answered.

DUELDUELDE

For Susan's birthday, Harry had the usual one on one birthday dinner he had with each of the girls in the school kitchens and then she opened presents as the other girls came in.

At the same time, Tonks explained a bit about what they had been keeping from her, but also that she had a rather special surprise.

"We've decided to have Harry act out one of your sexual fantasies for you," Tonks proclaimed.

"That's only if you want to," Harry added, "and it would only be to a certain extent, farther than I would normally go, but this is a very special occasion."

He had also gotten her a new gorgeous black dress just in case.

"Harry, my fantasies can be a bit...interesting," Susan admitted.

"I know," He replied, "like I said we're only going to be going so far."

DUELDUELDE

Susan anxiously awaited her present after she had changed into the gorgeous new dress that she had gotten for her birthday, a very form fitting black dress that emphasized her expansive cleavage.

She was led inside the room that they usually used to practice dueling in, only this time it was ornamented with lights floating all around the room to make it appear more romantic.

Harry was standing just to the left of the platform and said, "You look beautiful Susan."

"Thanks Harry," she answered, "so what does this fantasy entail?"

"Whatever you want it to, it's your fantasy after all. Su gave me a suggestion for what you might like, but I think you might like it better if I just do whatever you want me to."

"Okay," she agreed, "then will you dance with me?"

"It would be my honor," he said, taking her hand.

As they began to dance, she felt that familiar feeling of hearing her song and dancing her dance. She absolutely loved dancing with Harry, there really was nothing else like it.

It was so wild, so beautiful, so indescribable and she was left breathless by the end of it.

As she looked into the boy...man, that she loved, staring into his gorgeous green eyes, she imagined what she wanted to satisfy her fantasy. She wanted to command him to do things with and to her, many of her fantasies involved him having to obey her, not so much in a super dominant way, just where he had to obey her, and he had to do what she asked for next.

"Kiss me Harry," she commanded.

He did so, slowly kissing her, not just her lips, but also along her neck as well.

"Squeeze my bum."

She was rewarded by him cupping her bum.

"Same thing to my breasts."

She loved having her breasts fondled, whether it was herself or Harry. She could even orgasm just from touching them and her oh so sensitive nipples.

While she would have been happy to continue having him squeeze them all day, she knew that tonight at least she would be going much farther.

"Take off my dress Harry," she asked.

He fumbled with the zipper in the back but managed to pull it off as she slipped out of it.

Now clad only in her underwear, she was already quite enjoying watching him undress her.

"Now my bra."

She had decided to put on a bra that unhooked in front once she had heard about the fantasy night they would be having to watch this very scene unfold.

After telling him how to unhook it he couldn't help but stare at her large bosom, struggling to remove the one thing that prevented him from seeing them laid bare before him.

He finally slipped it off, and she enjoyed the sensation of finally letting him see them in all their glory. Her breasts were huge and beautiful and were easily her favorite thing about her body. She had fantasized many a time when it came to this moment as she shared just how beautiful they really were.

As he stared in open amazement, she drank in the attention.

"They're magnificent aren't they Harry?" Susan asked seductively, "you want them don't you? You want to feel them, to squeeze them, to massage them, to suck them, don't you?"

He nodded and she then said, "Massage my boobs for me."

As he did so, she was immediately even more aroused as he began to knead and massage her naked breasts.

"These are the first naked breasts you've ever held isn't it?" She asked.

"I wanted you to be the first," He answered.

She swelled with pride and allowed him to continue feeling them for her as she already had her hands down her panties. On second thought, she wouldn't be needing them anymore.

"Take off my panties," She commanded.

He pulled his hands off her chest to pull down her panties and she sighed, that was good but it was about to get even better.

"Take off your own clothes."

He did so, slowly and seductively, and she suspected he had been coached by Tonks.

Finally he was down to only his underwear, containing the huge bulge that he presented to her.

She had often fantasized about just what that bulge contained and just how big it was but when he finally pulled them down, she couldn't help but gasp at its size.

Having never actually seen one before, she had only had to guess just what exactly it looked like and how big it could be, but it certainly looked impressive nevertheless.

She really wanted to touch it, but figured that that would just be too forward of her, and so instead settled on asking:

"Could I watch you...you know...handle it?" She asked.

He nodded and she watched in utter fascination as he stroked it.

Now with something to actually look at, she was more turned on than she ever had been as she slowly slipped a couple of fingers into her folds and began to handle herself at the same time.

Merlin this so turned her on.

She watched breathlessly as Harry began to cum right in front of her, more than she would have ever thought possible.

Although she backed up, she still got a little bit of it on her.

"Sorry," He tried to say.

"Don't be Harry, that was hot!" She admitted, "Now what I really want you to do now is have you suck my boobs, but you don't have to if you don't feel comfortable with that."

"I can't think of a better pair to suck," He answered.

She grinned and said, "then suck them."

He pressed his mouth right onto her right nipple and gently placed his lips around her. She nearly orgasmed just at that simple contact as already turned on as she was.

She had been yearning for him to do this very thing and he began to slowly suck while he massaged it as well with his hands.

"You make me feel so good Harry," she admitted, as she furiously masturbated while he kept his attention on her boob, first that one and then the other.

She couldn't help but scream, "Best Birthday Ever!"

Author's Note: Okay that's my first real attempt at a lime since readers keep asking for it, but don't expect too many as I really do need to focus on the actual story.


	33. Yule Tidings

Chapter 33

Yule Tidings

Following his date with Susan, things had settled into a rather enjoyable and comfortable state for Harry.

They now all enjoyed watching each other jerk off and he had the luxury of watching all of the girls naked while fondling themselves.

While usually during such times there was a no touching each other policy, he sometimes opted to feel one of the girls up a bit under their shirt during make out sessions, particularly Susan who seemed to really love to have her boobs touched.

The announcement of the Yule Ball gave him considerable grief, not that he didn't want to go, but because he had had to ask each of the girls to it individually and still somehow make it special for them.

It was a bit awkward, he had to admit, and even though they had been expecting him to ask them, they were still excited nonetheless.

He really couldn't understand the big deal behind the whole thing, but if the girls were happy, then he was happy too.

Finally however the night of the ball came as he waited patiently for each of the girls to arrive in the entrance to the great hall.

They all arrived together, looking absolutely stunning in their various ballgowns. Fleur and Gabrielle were wearing light blues ones, Su in a small red one that appeared to be very Chinese in its style, Susan in black, Pansy in a dark green, and Tonks in a totally pure white one.

They all looked absolutely beautiful and provided him so much eye candy that he wished he had 2 more sets of eyes just so he could have one eye on each of them at all times.

He decided to escort each of them individually into the ball while the rest waited for their turn as he kept coming back for them.

While he escorted each of them in, he looked around to see just who had wound up going with who.

Viktor Krum had gone with Hermione, who had almost been unrecognizable with her dress, hair, and makeup and Harry noted that Krum couldn't seem to even keep his eyes off her.

Cedric Diggory was with Cho Chang, the Weasley Twins with Angelina and Alicia, and he even spotted Fleur's cousin Roxanne with a very flustered looking Roger Davies.

When the dancing finally began, he was obligated, as the date of one of the champions, to dance with Fleur first.

As the dancing began, he was once again caught up in the now familiar feeling of soul dancing as he and Fleur danced to their own special song.

Of course, everyone was riveted on them, but for once, he and Fleur really didn't care if people were staring, to them it was just the two of them.

Fleur would probably be considered the most beautiful girl at the ball by most of the onlookers, her only competition her younger sister Gabrielle but if she had been considered ugly, he still would have found her beautiful just from the song and the dance within her that conveyed so much of her personality.

She was strong and brave, yet gentle and kind, and above all he knew that she loved him.

Such love was brought out right there before him without even any words spoken. It actually brought tears to his eyes as he gazed into her own beautiful eyes and saw what was behind them as windows to the soul.

What amazed him however was that this strong of love was just as strong in the rest of the girls he was betrothed to and he never tired of seeing it reflected in their eyes.

Applause actually broke out when they finished dancing, but he totally ignored them and begged Fleur's permission to go dance with one of the other girls.

"You can also go dance with someone else if they ask, I don't mind," He added.

She gave him a curious look and said, "I think you've already spoiled dancing for me Harry. Every time after we dance like that, regular dancing just isn't nearly as good anymore. Besides it always leaves me breathless and me wanting to soak it all in. I'll wait until it's my turn again."

He nodded and went to go dance with Pansy.

After dancing with her, then Gabrielle, then Su, then Susan, he finally got to Tonks.

As they began to dance, as usual people were staring at them and no doubt already had commented on all of their incredible dancing skills, but this time he expected to find such dancing skills to fail to work as it only worked with girls who loved him and he loved back.

Yet as they began, a dance and a song that could only be Tonks' began to play in his mind and go through his body. It wasn't as strong as it had been for the other girls but it was still definitely there.

She seemed just as surprised as he did and he asked her, "Does this mean that we...?"

"I think that it must be," Tonks concluded before asking, "does that bother you?"

"Not at all," He admitted, "if this means that I love you and you love me, then that makes me happy."

She smiled and said, "I'm happy to hear that Harry, and also find out that I love you."

"I love you too," He answered as he leaned in and gave her a kiss.

When the dance finally ended, he decided to take a break and go get drinks for all of the girls.

He had to borrow a tray in order to hold them all, but as he was coming back from getting them, he nearly bumped into Percy.

"Hey Percy," Harry greeted, "What brings you here?"

"My boss Mr. Crouch asked me to come with him and chaperone the ball. Besides Penny seems to like these kinds of things," Percy admitted.

He remembered vaguely that he and Penelope Clearwater had been dating when they had both graduated last year. Evidently they still were.

At that moment, someone bumped into the tray he had been holding, causing one of the drinks to fall off.

The glass didn't break, but the drink spilled all over the floor.

Noticing that he was now one drink short, Percy said, "Here, take mine, I grabbed two, one for me and Penny but I didn't realize until just now that it was just sparkling cider. Figures that would be what you get at these kid parties."

Percy straightened up his shoulders as if to show that a Hogwarts party like this was now beneath him as an adult.

"Thanks Percy," Harry said, "I'd better go and get these drinks to the girls."

Heading off again, he managed to navigate through the crowd without spilling or losing anymore drinks and let the girls each have one, before he took the one Percy had given him.

"Harry are you ready to go dancing again?" Gabrielle asked hopefully.

Now more rested, he nodded, and drank down his glass in one go, before escorting her out onto the dance floor.

As they began to dance, however, it appeared that the dance was actually stronger than it had been before, or at least he was now more struck by just how beautiful Gabrielle actually looked.

He couldn't help but stare at her cleavage and thought about touching them then and there.

Reaching up, he put his hands on her breasts before he even realized what he was doing.

"Harry, not here," Gabrielle whispered to him, even though he could tell that she wouldn't normally mind.

"Then let's go somewhere else so we can," He suggested.

He took her hand and led her away back to his dorm room, which actually wasn't all that far away from the great hall.

As they walked over, he felt more turned on than he ever had in his life. Perhaps it was just how amazing the night was or just all the dancing he had been doing, but Gabrielle looked really hot right about then and he couldn't help but imagine himself undressing her, to feel her gorgeous body, to...

He shook himself, while he might have fantasized about that on occasion he had never seriously considered actually going that far just yet.

Nonetheless, when they got back to his bedroom, he immediately began making out with Gabrielle as he helped her get out of her clothes, before getting his own off.

Now both totally naked, he continued making out with her again, but also feeling up her body. Her breasts, her butt, her hair, he just had to feel it all.

As he put his hands into her womanhood, however, she groaned and broke away from kissing him to ask, "Just how far are you planning to go with this Harry?"

All the way, he had to go all the way. That was what his mind was telling him, stronger than ever before.

"Merlin you're just so sexy Gabrielle," Harry admitted, "make love to me."

As what he had last said was a command, she was now forced to obey, but she looked so calm that he figured it wasn't too bad.

Besides, he really wanted her right then, and he didn't think he could hold out any longer.

They began to make out more forcefully as Gabrielle then grasped his cock and began to rub it vigorously, causing him to moan in pleasure.

Merlin it felt good.

As she massaged his cock, he massaged her whole body. He simply couldn't get enough of her.

After a bit of foreplay, she began to slowly guide him into her opening and he made no move to stop her. This was what he wanted.

Nothing would stop it now.

DUELDUELDE

Twenty minutes earlier when Harry and Gabrielle were just starting their lovemaking, the rest of the girls were wondering just where they had gone and when they would be back.

Harry simply pulling one of the girls aside to make out was actually quite common, but now they were wondering just how long he would be.

Su went to go look for them only to find the Weasley twins currently looking over at another couple in one of the hallways.

"I wonder why it didn't work," Fred asked George.

"It seems to have worked with Penelope, she's been trying to make out with him for the past 10 minutes, but stupid Percy keeps insisting that this isn't the right setting to make out," George answered.

"This is the perfect setting to make out," Fred said, "Percy is just too high and mighty and thinks making out at a kid party is somehow beneath him. He doesn't have to play chaperone all the time."

"What are you talking about?" Su asked, coming up behind them.

"We tried spiking Percy's drinks when he wasn't looking. Nothing too severe, just something to increase his libido and lose a bit of self control so that he would make out with Penelope and we would have a bit of dirt on him, but it looks like only Penelope actually drank it," George admitted.

"Wait a minute, are you saying that those drinks were spiked?" Su asked in alarm.

"That's just what we told you," Fred replied.

"Percy gave one of those drinks to Harry!" Su yelled.

Fred and George seemed disappointed, but not overly concerned.

George grinned and said, "well then he's probably just off making out with one of the girls right about now."

"Harry and Gabrielle just left the ball alone," Su answered.

"Well like I said, it should be very mild, they'll probably go make out for a bit somewhere and then be fine in less than an hour, no real harm done," Fred said.

Su relaxed a bit at that, that didn't seem too bad.

"Unless there was some extra stimuli," George added.

"What kind of extra stimuli?" Su then asked.

"Anything that would cause him to already be turned on, such as if the girl was really sexy already, was a siren or a veela, or if they were already doing something really sensual," George replied.

"You idiots! You just described Gabrielle. She's very attractive, a veela, and the dance they were doing can be incredibly sensual!" Su screamed.

She could forgive them for not thinking about the dance, as they wouldn't have known what a soul dance was. She also could possibly understand not realizing just how attractive Gabrielle was at the moment, but her being a veela was a bit hard to forget.

It only just then dawned on them as they put two and two together and realized that she was entirely right, but still weren't overly concerned.

"Then one of three things will happen: either Gabrielle will choose to go along with it as far as Harry chooses to go, she'll just slap him, and we'll be able to just laugh at him, or Harry will be able to proudly say he's no longer a virgin," Fred said grinning.

In response she slapped both of them across the face, quickly erasing the smirks on them, and then hurried off back to Harry's dorm room, hoping that they had gone there.

When she arrived, she opened up Harry's bedroom, to find the two of them on the bed naked with Harry's penis about to enter Gabrielle.

She quickly stunned first Harry, and then Gabrielle.

Grateful that she had apparently managed to make it just in time, she hurried back to get the other girls before they woke up, explaining what had happened on the way.

"Did you consider the fact that perhaps Gabrielle wanted to have sex with him?" Susan pointed out slightly out of breath from running.

"Yes but I know Harry wouldn't, especially not when his first time was nearly with him not in his right mind," Su answered.

"Gabrielle would never have done something like this of her own volition either so I'm a little worried if perhaps Harry commanded her to do it," Fleur said.

"Wouldn't that break the unbreakable vow that Harry made to her?" Pansy asked.

"There's only one way to find out," Su said as they all entered Harry's bedroom.

Fortunately they were both still knocked out so they waited a few minutes until they began to come to.

Harry woke up first and looked around blearily at them all.

"What happened?" He asked, "the last thing I remember was..."

He blushed a very deep crimson and asked looking very worried, "I didn't...please tell me I didn't..."

"I stopped you before you could get that far but only just barely," Su admitted.

He breathed a sigh of relief, before looking over at Gabrielle who was still unconscious.

"She's fine, I decided to knock her out as well just in case. Apparently you accidentally drank a lust potion that Fred and George tried to give to Percy, so it was messing with your self control and causing you to have a stronger sex drive than normal, which was the reason why you wanted sex so bad," Su replied.

"I didn't know what I was doing," Harry replied, looking very forlorn, "I wasn't thinking clearly. I just couldn't help thinking about beautiful Gabrielle looked and just how much I wanted her. I just couldn't seem to help myself," He told them, before suddenly getting fearful again, "I remember I commanded her to have sex with me, she had no choice in the matter, I nearly...nearly raped her."

He began to cry, terrified what he had nearly done to a girl he loved very much and had always tried to respect.

"It's okay Harry, it wasn't you, it wasn't your fault," Pansy soothed.

"No it was me, I'm a monster," He claimed, "all I wanted was sex from her and she couldn't even resist me."

Pansy tried to go give him a hug, but he rejected it and went and got his clothes on before leaving.

At the same time, Gabrielle began to come to as well and look around at them.

"Did I just black out? The last thing I remember was..." Gabrielle stated, before blushing.

"No you didn't actually have sex, although it came pretty close," Su informed her.

She related to the French girl the whole story while she listened.

"We don't blame either of you at all Gabrielle, we know that neither of you were really in your right minds," Susan told her.

"I just want to know why the unbreakable vow that Harry swore didn't activate, it isn't supposed to let him be able to force either me or Gabrielle to do something that we really don't want to do," Fleur stated.

"Unless Gabrielle really wanted to have sex," Pansy pointed out.

They all looked over at Gabrielle and she finally admitted, "Well I wouldn't have been too upset. I was thinking that it seemed a bit soon and wasn't sure if I was quite ready for it, but I wasn't about to resist even if I could."

"That might be it, that you just didn't have a strong enough objection to the command, but I'm still going to check with Madame Bones," Tonks answered.

"Where is Harry now?" Gabrielle asked.

"Probably off feeling horrible until we let him cool down and convince him that everything is really okay," Pansy answered.

"I think I'd better go handle this myself," Gabrielle said, getting up from the bed.

DUELDUELDE

Harry was currently inside the dueling room, helping himself relax by hitting training dummies with spells.

He felt horrible, horrible that he had almost raped Gabrielle. She had loved and trusted him and he had let her down in a huge way. It didn't matter to him if they hadn't actually done it, the point was they nearly had, and he had made no effort to stop it.

As he accidentally burnt one of the training dummies into oblivion, he heard someone speak his name.

"Harry?" Gabrielle asked.

As he turned to look at her, he felt even more guilty.

"I'm sorry," He tried to say.

"There is nothing to apologize for, I know that this wasn't your fault, no matter how much you might try to blame yourself," Gabrielle told him.

"That's just it, a part of me wanted to have sex with you, and I didn't even try to stop it," He pointed out.

"Well a part of me did as well," Gabrielle admitted, "you want to know what I was thinking that whole time? I was thinking it was a bit soon and I was surprised you really wanted it, but above all I couldn't help but be flattered that you had chosen me to be your first. I love you Harry and I would do anything for you, even that I now realize."

"What if you hadn't been though?" He asked, "I would have been able to force you anyway, it would be like raping you. The point is I lost control and I could very well have hurt you."

"You wouldn't have been able to hurt me, not because you had some vow that prevented you, but because that's just who you are. I believe that if I had objected, you would have seen through the lust potion and stopped it, I really do," Gabrielle claimed.

"I just want to feel better and not look at you and feel guilty," He answered, "tell me what I can do to make it better."

"How about I show you, not just tell you what I was feeling at the time?" Gabrielle suggested, "read my mind."

Pointing his wand at her, he used legilimency on her to read her mind and experience what she was going through.

He realized that it was just as she said and he was struck by the fact that she really had been willing to go that far for him, to willingly give him the one thing that was most precious to her.

Even as that memory faded, more began to take its place as he realized that Gabrielle was now feeding him even more information and memories.

His first meeting of her, them practicing for their first duel tournament, he realized that she was quickly feeding him all of the memories that they had shared together in life or at least the more important ones.

It became almost like a very long story, only gone through much more quickly than would normally be possible. Through all of it, he got to see her point of view of each of those events as her simply liking him had developed into a full on crush and then finally unconditional love. It truly was beautiful to experience and made him realize that she really would do anything for him, and now so did he.

Tears were already freely flowing down both of their faces but neither of them made any move to stop it.

After he broke from her mind, she said still with the same amount of love that he knew she had for him: "I love you Harry."

He chose to reciprocate and allow her to see what he had been feeling as well as when he had worried about what he had almost done to her against her will, before going back to his own thinking on each of the memories they had experienced together.

By the end of it, they had already cried themselves dry and Harry kissed her with as much love as he could muster.

This wasn't sex, but he couldn't imagine it ever feeling any better than he already did now.

Taking her hand, they began dancing again, with him now viewing Gabrielle not so much in a lustful way, but still regarding her as just as beautiful.

However long they danced, he wasn't sure, but throughout his life, this would always be one of his fondest memories.

Both exhausted by the end of it, they dropped down onto one of the soft practice mats they used and fell asleep together in each others' arms.

DUELDUELDE

The next morning they both got up, explained what had happened last night between them to the girls and then got ready to go to one of Sirius, Narcissa, and Amelia's houses to spend the rest of the Christmas break.

When they finally got there Tonks explained to Amelia in front of them about just what had happened and also asked just why the unbreakable vow that Harry had given hadn't been enough to stop him or cause him to lose his magic.

"Was Gabrielle just wanting to do it enough for it to not really activate?" Tonks asked her.

Amelia sighed and said, "I could simply say yes and probably be telling the truth, but I suppose rather than lie, I should probably admit something. Harry never actually swore a real unbreakable vow."

"Did I just not say it properly? I was worried I hadn't at the time but neither you nor Mr. Delacour tried to correct me so I figured I had done it right," Harry concluded.

It had been years since he had sworn the vow, but he had never run into a situation where he had come close to breaking it before now so he hadn't really thought about it much.

"First of all at the time I was rather shocked that you would make such a vow, but while I listened to hearing you give it, I was first thinking that it might not be such a good idea to make a rash vow anyway as it might be hard, even for you to be able to fully obey it. The vow could have easily been broken as during a moment of weakness, you could have gotten angry and tried to force Fleur or Gabrielle to do something they didn't want to in order to get back at them for something. I could never have allowed you to lose your magic or your life so easily so I chose not to correct you. I also figured that even though the vow wouldn't really work, and Mr. Delacour also knew that, Mr. Delacour would feel much more at ease if you believed that it had been done correctly and that you were now under such an obligation. He was worried about his daughters' safety being put into the hands of a near stranger and I really couldn't blame him for not speaking up either.

After talking about it, we decided not to correct you and simply let you all believe that as we felt that it would better protect all of you.

As you can see, at least for the last couple of years it seems to have worked as you evidently didn't command Fleur or Gabrielle to do a single thing they didn't want to do, which I think is a huge accomplishment. If it hadn't been for last night, who knows how long it could have gone on without incident?"

Harry felt kind of upset about that as he had been hoping that there would always be something to deter him from taking advantage of them, which was indeed one of his biggest fears.

"Isn't there something I could do to prevent myself from taking advantage of them without swearing a vow?" He asked.

Amelia shook her head and said, "I'm afraid not. Actually after researching it a bit, I found out that even if you had sworn a perfect unbreakable vow, it wouldn't have worked anyway, since Fleur and Gabrielle are now technically your property and you can't swear vows to your own property. The same would hold true for any other method you might take to ensure what you're asking."

Gabrielle put his hand into hers and she told him, "It's like we discussed last night Harry, you yourself is already strong enough for that."

He gazed into her eyes before kissing her again.

"I really don't think you need to worry all that much Harry," Amelia advised.

He nodded and then decided to change the subject, "So are we going to open presents now?"

DUELDUELDE

The rest of Christmas break was great and he enjoyed simply spending time with everyone as "The Incident" as he now referred to it, faded from his mind.

That all changed however when Tonks invited Harry to come into her bedroom one day.

"You can shut the door and then sit down on the bed," She told him.

He did so, sitting down next to her.

"I'm sure you're wondering just why I called you in here, and it's because me, Sirius, and Narcissa are a little bit concerned about something. I know how far you've already gone with each of the girls and me and eventually you're going to want to go all the way. The incident that you had during the Yule Ball only seems to highlight the growing precariousness of it."

"I'm trying not to give in," He told her.

"I wouldn't have had any problems if you had Harry," Tonks admitted, "but the problem is that you are already facing more and more temptation as it is and the girls while well meaning might not be able to help themselves including myself. Sooner or later, you'll decide to take the plunge and I want to make sure that you are prepared."

"I've already had the Talk I don't know how many times," Harry told her.

"This won't be the Talk Harry, this will be practice, kind of like a continuation to the romance and make out lessons we used to have," Tonks said.

"Practice?" Harry asked confused.

"I decided that you should know what you're doing before your first time. All of the girls know just as little as you do, so I want to make sure that you make it a good first experience for them. I'll be showing you how to cast the contraception charm, a couple of spells that will increase sexual pleasure, and how to stimulate a woman so she feels the most pleasure. You want them to have a good first time right?"

Harry gulped. While Tonks was a beautiful woman, he didn't feel that his first time should be done in this way.

He had the courage to tell her this.

"Don't get me wrong, you're a beautiful woman but I don't think that you and me going all the way would be such a good idea, I guarantee you the girls would all be mad at both of us," Harry told her.

"I agree entirely," Tonks answered, "we will not be going all the way, it would not be right for me to take that honor, but we'll just be practicing spells and you touching my body, okay?"

This seemed like a crazy idea, but Tonks did not wait for his answer as she began taking off her clothes.

Tonks decided to be in her natural form for this and he was once again taken by her attractive body.

He'd never had any fantasies about her but he knew that the sight of her would be permanently ingrained in his mind forever whether he liked it or not.

She turned around and said, "Why don't you practice taking my bra off?"

He did so as she instructed him on how to pull the clasps apart. He'd done this before with Susan, but he still had trouble with it.

She made him put it back together and then pull it apart several more times before she was finally satisfied.

"Now my panties," she said.

He pulled then down, revealing her perfect bum to him.

When she turned around, she was entirely naked.

"Okay Harry, where would you like to start?" Tonks asked.

Since his gaze was currently focused on her chest, she said, "All right, we'll start with those then. Now place your hands on them."

He hesitated for a few seconds, before deciding he really could use some practice. He really did want to make sure that he did all these things right and provide the best pleasure for each of the girls.

Her breasts were about a D cup so they were a decent size and fit well in his hand.

She taught him how best to fondle and suck them.

"Let's see how you do if they are a different size," Tonks recommended.

Using her metamorphmagus abilities, she decreased them in size until they were only a small A cup.

He wasn't entirely sure just what to do as there wasn't exactly a lot to grab, but she showed him how to anyway.

Probably only to see his reaction, she next made them absolutely huge, finally stopping at a K cup.

He realized that there were some definite advantages to having a metamorphmagus for a girlfriend.

While he liked all different sizes, there was also something about looking at the biggest pair of tits you're likely to ever see.

They might not be exactly practical at that size, but it didn't mean he wouldn't enjoy them if Tonks decided to make them that big for his enjoyment.

He nearly gasped in shock at just how much they weighed. They were certainly very heavy and any woman who actually was that big would need a very strong bra and support charm.

"Pretty big, huh?" She asked.

"Yeah, definitely," He agreed as he lifted them up yet again in amazement.

She had him explore her stomach, legs, and then her butt, which she also changed sizes on for his benefit.

"You do realize that you're seriously spoiling me right?" He pointed out as he rubbed her rear that was so big and perfect that he doubted if there was any real woman who actually possessed such a one.

She grinned and said, "I know, but I'm your girlfriend, and I like having a bit of fun with you. Just don't make any requests just yet, the guys that I've been with in the past always ask me to turn into their favorite porn star or something."

"I won't," He promised, "besides you've already spoiled me silly."

After another minute she asked, "Are you ready to move on to my womanhood?"

He gulped, but finally nodded. Having done so to Gabrielle while still under the affects of the lust potion, he realized he really did need to learn this as he had had no idea what he was doing, and the girls had all informed him there was a lot more to it than simply touching it.

Thus he followed her instructions closely until he finally found the "illustrious g-spot" as Tonks termed it and stimulated it as she told him to as she enjoyed the feel of his fingers inside her and in just the right spot.

It was an incredible turn on to watch Tonks act this way, no longer because of stimulating herself, but because of him.

He managed to get her to orgasm a couple of times and then she decided to tell him to call it a day.

"You did a great job Harry. We'll have a couple more lessons where I teach you the contraception charm and some other stuff, and more of what we just did if you'd like," Tonks informed him.

He could only nod as he left the room.

Author's Note: Yet another exploring sexuality chapter. I tried to avoid it, but it just seemed the story required it and I finally just gave up and went with it. I doubt many of you mind. I also want to point out that unbelievably, we are actually only halfway done with the story time wise since I plan on going through all 7 years. There is still 3 and a half years to go. It's already mind blowing just how much I've already got done in such a short amount of time.


	34. The Second Task

Author's Note: With this story now halfway over, it is important to recognize exactly why DUEL is named duel. In addition to the magical duels Harry has had to fight, as an up and coming world class duelist, it very much is also a duel waged in his own mind on what to do against social injustice and controversy. Even in canon, the wizarding world seems to be full of it. By now, just about every single social controversy has been at the very least mentioned, and Harry has had to handle some of them while others he still doesn't know about. A victim of social injustice himself (child abuse) has of course severely impacted him.

Up to now, however, he really hasn't known exactly what to do or taken somewhat limited action. While he's talked about resolving such problems, in Part 2 he'll start to form an actual plan and take them all head on.

Chapter 34

The Second Task

By the time the Second Task came around, Fleur felt a lot more confident about how she would do in it. After plenty of swimming lessons and having already swam to the mermaid village multiple times, she was sure that she would do fine.

After this was over though, she had no desire to ever be underwater ever again. While she felt more comfortable as a mermaid it made her feel so unlike herself and it just felt too weird for her to want to do it unless it was absolutely necessary.

Last night Harry had been taken by Professor McGonagall but not before getting her to confess that it was for the tournament.

Fleur guessed that it meant that Harry was the thing that she would sorely miss and have to rescue.

While she would have preferred that they didn't place actual people into unnecessary danger, she was grateful that it was Harry going underneath the lake and not Gabrielle. She would never have allowed that knowingly.

As the crowd of spectators swarmed around the lake to watch them begin, she looked around at each of her fellow champions.

She had spotted Krum once going to go practice in the lake, and Marie had hinted at already having figured out her clue but as for anyone else, she had no idea if they had solved the egg clue or figured out a way to be able to breathe underwater.

It appeared however that Marian suddenly looked even more nervous as she was told about going underneath the lake.

Dumbledore began explaining what they had to do while she listened intently, making sure that she had everything down.

"You will each have 1 hour to try and get to your hostage, rescue them and bring them to the surface, at which time the clock will stop for you and be recorded. Good luck. " Dumbledore announced.

Finally he told them to start, and she wasted no time, not bothering to look at her fellow champions to see what they were doing and instead started hissing the Parseltongue spell that would turn her into a mermaid.

People were no doubt confused by all the hissing she was doing, but she ignored them and turned herself into a mermaid, ignoring the no doubt startled or shocked looked she got for such a transformation.

Swimming as fast as she could, she was at least happy that she could probably swim way faster than if she had simply used a bubble head charm, her tail and rather strong swimming skills as a mermaid gave her a huge advantage.

Already knowing exactly where the Mervillage was, she swam over and arrived in less than 9 minutes before finding Harry tied down, appearing to be asleep with some other people needing to be rescued as well. She recognized Roxanne's hostage, her little brother, as he was also her own cousin.

Leaving him behind to be rescued by Roxanne, she swam over and used a spell that she had been practicing using underwater to cut off the ropes tying him down and grabbed him.

He wasn't too heavy fortunately, but she did have to slow her pace just slightly as she pulled him to the surface.

As soon as they broke through into the air, the spell currently causing Harry to sleep wore off as he woke up.

"What took you so long?" He asked her cheekily as he looked over at her.

"I got here as fast as I could." She answered, grinning at him, "It looks like I get to be your hero this time around."

"Be honest, how beautiful a maiden in waiting do I make?" He asked with a grin and a dramatic hair flip.

"Oh you're quite the catch, I think I'll keep you." Fleur answered before kissing him heatedly.

It was approximately forty seven seconds later when they both remembered they still needed to get back to shore. They made it back in record time, since Fleur noticed Harry start to shiver in the cold water.

Everyone looked quite surprised to see her back so quickly as it had really only taken her 10 minutes to complete the task but everyone still cheered nonetheless as she transformed back into her Veela self.

She noticed that Marian had apparently already failed in the task, and likely hadn't been able to figure out a way to breathe underwater as the girl was still standing there, still totally dry.

Dumbledore had been able to cast a spell allowing the spectators to watch the remaining champions compete on a huge projected screen of some kind.

Roxanne, Marie, and Nicolette had all used the Bubblehead Charm, and Krum was using a partial transfiguration of himself into a shark, although it didn't appear to help with actual swimming much.

Roxanne got caught by some Grindylows but she managed to escape, and then Nicolette ran into the same problem 5 minutes later.

Finally when it became clear that she was now caught as a couple of Grindylows held tightly onto her, Professor McGonagall, evidently having already been down under the lake to run interference if necessary came in and rescued her before bringing her to the surface.

Now there were only 3 champions left still trying to rescue their hostages.

Marie got to the mervillage first and rescued her champion, which was her mother before coming back, managing to get to the surface only a minute past an hour.

Krum was next, followed by Roxanne.

As the judges deliberated, she took the opportunity to congratulate all 3 of them.

Of course Peeves ended up showing up with the two remaining hostages at that point, having lurked at the bottom of the lake until he realized they wouldn't be rescued as a way to prove that he had completed the task as well.

Neither hostage was too happy to find they were rescued by a poltergeist, but Peeves still proudly displayed the two rescued hostages that he had saved nonetheless.

Finally Dumbledore announced the scores:

"Marian Dumas, having failed to complete her task or show the capability of being able to breathe underwater as the task requires, we are forced to award her only 1 point."

Marian nodded. It was 1 point more than she likely expected to get.

"Nicolette LePeux failed to complete her task but exercised excellent use of the bubble head charm, therefore we award her 25 points."

Nicolette also nodded, gratefully.

"Roxanne Delacour also used the bubble head charm and managed to complete her task in 1 hour and 10 minutes. We therefore award her 37 points."

That wasn't too bad, Fleur supposed, although she wondered just what Krum and Marie would be getting.

"Viktor Krum using a partal transfiguration finished in 1 hour and 5 minutes, for which we award him 40 points."

Krum only nodded glumly, even if it was a decent score.

"Marie Dupris finished only a minute outside of an hour using a bubble head charm and therefore we award her 47 points."

If Marie managed to get 47 points, she herself was likely to get a perfect score she realized.

"Fleur Delacour using a dangerous and illegal spell was disqualified and given 0 points," Dumbledore announced.

Immediately there was a clamor of angry protests by the students and even some of the faculty. Even she felt quite cheated as there was absolutely nothing in the rules that prohibited her from using parselmagic or turning herself into a mermaid. Su had even checked just to be sure.

"Silence!" Dumbledore roared, "as per the rules I am allowed to disqualify the Champion from my school if I feel that they have committed any illegal actions in a task. I have also concluded that after such horrible and blatant cheating already committed in this tournament, we simply could not allow anymore to continue. While it pains me to have to disqualify my own Champion representing my own school, she simply broke the rules and the magic that she used was of the most evil and dark nature once used to rape innocent merpeople."

"There is nothing in the rules against using parselmagic Professor or that particular spell." Su shouted angrily.

"Be that as it may, I still have the right to disqualify my own Champion should I so choose. I want everyone to know that Hogwarts is a school that will not stand for even the smallest amount of cheating. Hogwarts is one of the best schools in the world and I intend to keep it that way." Dumbledore argued.

Of course people still protested, but Dumbledore decided to leave just then, citing important business.

"This is so totally unfair." Gabrielle insisted.

Personally Fleur was angry too but she didn't say anything, only chose to listen to the rest of them and their complaints.

It was just a silly tournament, but the idea that Dumbledore would disqualify her for cheating like that was preposterous. She reasoned she had little chance of winning now.

DUELDUELDUEL

Dumbledore actually did have important business to attend to but it wasn't what anyone might have thought.

He was quite eager to get back to his project which was already nearing completion.

After some effort, he had already managed to create the bodies of two dozen world leaders and it would not take long to bring them to life.

The only problem however would be finding a decent test subject. It had to be someone who would not be missed for a long period of time while he experimented on them, had no family or friends who might be get suspicious of any differences between the real thing and the clone, and also be easy enough to capture and steal memories from without drawing too much attention to himself.

He had finally selected Mr. Crouch, the head of International Magical Cooperation because first of all he was often gone on long business trips to other countries as part of his job and so would not be missed for some time, had no family or even close friends who really knew him all that well, and as an added bonus had some influence in the international community, which would certainly aid him in sending his clone out to discreetly obtain more samples of more people he intended to clone.

Now that Crouch's clone body was ready, all he needed now was to get Snape to create the potion that would bring the clone to life.

When he got to Snape's secret lab, he found Snape currently smoking a cigar.

"Be careful of the smoke Snape, it might mess with our two subjects in unforeseen ways." Dumbledore cautioned.

Snape let out a puff of smoke from his lips and then said, "I'm done Dumbledore, that thing over there might look like Lily, but she'll never be her."

Dumbledore sighed. It appeared Snape was being difficult again. He only needed Snape for a little bit longer but he still needed him to make the potion as he was the only one with the ability and the knowledge to create it.

Once he did and animated at least one clone, he would be able to simply extract blood from it and use it to start animating more clones, making Snape no longer necessary to his plans although he would certainly keep him around just in case.

Still he would now need to convince Snape since he was too strong to imperious.

Fortunately he still had one trump card to play.

"I do believe that I have a solution to that problem, my dear Severus," Dumbledore explained, "I've recently learned that Lily apparently had a pensieve and deposited all of her memories inside it before she died."

Snape looked at him with a look of incredulity, excitement, and a slight amount of anger.

"Why didn't you tell me about this before?" Snape demanded.

"I only recently learned of it," Dumbledore claimed.

This was actually a lie, he had known about it since before she had even been killed.

Concerned if something ever happened to her after hearing the prophecy about Harry, Lily had decided to place most of her memories inside of a pensieve so they could be viewed by either her son or husband and still have some connection with her should she die.

Even then he believed that Lily had already been planning to use the spell that would sacrifice her own life in order to save her son's and never expected to actually survive herself. Lily had always been the type to be prepared.

Her one mistake however had been trusting him with her pensieve to be given to Harry when he was older.

Although he had intended to do this, he had been planning on giving it to him much later than she had intended after he had modified some of her memories to cast himself in an even better light so that Harry would be more inclined to blindly follow him.

For this reason he had hesitated about telling Snape before but he had finally been forced to conclude that Harry was now lost to him forever, the negative influences of both Amelia and Narcissa Black already having done too good a job on him.

"Just think Snape, she'll have all of Lily's memories and you won't even know the difference, you can even modify her memories to make her think that she really loves you." Dumbledore claimed.

Snape seem to think about this for a moment before finally agreeing, "All right Dumbledore, I'll do it, but not for you, for Lily. I'll bring her back just the way she was though without tainting her memories. I don't deserve her anymore since I'm pretty much the cause of her death. However I can at least do this much for her and give her another shot at life."

He looked back over at the form of the Lily clone.

Dumbledore gave him a pat on the back then said, "When will it be ready?"

"In a few days." Snape claimed.

Dumbledore nodded.

"Excellent." Dumbledore said, "I'll return tomorrow with the pensieve to transfer the memories to the clone before we animate her and Ariana."

He phoenix traveled out to return to his office, where Barty Crouch was waiting for him.

With Snape now having agreed to finish the potion for him, he could now proceed with his own plan.

"Dumbledore, you wished to see me?" Crouch asked, "I'm assuming that it is about the second task. I just wanted to offer my full support for your decision to disqualify that Veela girl."

"Good." Dumbledore said, raising his wand before Crouch could react, "Imperio."

Crouch tried to resist but the strength of his spell was too strong on him and he finally managed to gain control as Crouch was forced to relax as his expression went totally vacant.

Telling his mind to simply stand there, he allowed himself to look upon his new guinea pig.

Yes, he would do quite nicely, he thought.

Turning to a secret cupboard, he found 3 pensieves. One filled with various memories collected over the years from various people that he deemed important, one that had been the one that had been Lily's, and one that was currently empty.

Selecting the one that was currently empty, he began the process of transferring memories from Crouch's mind to the pensieve.

He did not get far however before he found out something quite interesting.

Quite interesting indeed he realized and just might be quite valuable to him. This was going to be a busy few days.

DUELDUELDUEL

Following the ridiculous judging of the second task, Fleur had asked Harry to give her a massage to help her cool off.

Now she lay on her bed totally naked while Harry gave her a full body massage.

It was something she absolutely loved. While some of the girls might like specific parts of their bodies touched, she enjoyed having her entire body felt up from head to toe.

Harry patiently focused on her feet and legs at first, slowly taking his time before he got to her more sensitive bits.

Though his gaze continually went to her bum, but the simple fact was that Fleur had far too magnificent a body not to have all of it given plenty of attention. He was of a similar opinion as she was; while he did like touching her sensitive bits more, there was still a huge amount of appeal in just touching all of her, basking in the knowledge that he could bring her pleasure by simply caressing her body.

Just as he was starting to go up a bit higher, Pansy came in.

"Krum is outside the common room wanting to talk to you and Harry." She told them.

"Did he say what it was about? I'm kind of busy here at the moment." Fleur pointed out, sounding somewhat annoyed at being interrupted.

"He didn't say, but he said he'd wait for you both until you got out." Pansy replied.

Grumbling just a bit, Fleur quickly put some clothes on and headed out with him.

When they found Krum still waiting outside he turned towards them.

"I just want to say that I don't believe that your Headmaster was right in disqualifying you like that." Krum started, "In fact I've discussed it with the other Champions and we've all agreed that we will wait until you are allowed to start and go on into the maze and get the head start we feel you deserve."

Fleur seemed genuinely surprised but also touched.

"I can't believe that you would all do that for me." Fleur commented, her eyes wetting at the gesture.

"It was all agreed upon. Both your friend and your cousin of course very quickly supported my idea and it didn't take much for either Nicolette or Marian to either. All of us just wouldn't feel right not at least giving you the advantage that you so rightly deserve. Nicolette and Marian also said that they didn't expect to win anyway and this way they would at least be competing fairly." Krum admitted.

Harry himself was actually touched by this gesture as well and was now starting to view Krum almost as a role model.

"I find it very powerful that you would choose to do this." Harry replied, "Despite all of these scandals that have rocked the tournament, this still proves that we can be above winning and instead simply do the right thing. While Dumbledore may have thought that he was proving a point that Hogwarts would not stand for anything else, I think this will be even more powerful, not just for Hogwarts but for all 3 of our schools."

"I hope for the same." Krum answered honestly.

"You've been a fantastic Champion and representative of your school and country." Fleur told him.

"I suppose I have gotten used to it, I am an internationally famous Quidditch star and everything I do seems to be judged by other people and reflected upon by my country. It is the same for the tournament. I try to take advantage of the great opportunity to show just how good the people in my country and in my school are." Krum responded.

It struck Harry that Krum would make such a comment as he realized that such a remark also applied to him. He was easily one of the most famous people in Britain as the boy-who-lived and even the world by now as a 2 time World Dueling Champion and what he said and did not only reflected upon himself but upon others as well whether he liked it or not. While there were plenty of bad people that he didn't care what their opinion was, there were also plenty of good people as well, as he imagined was the case in just about every country, both good and bad. It was an important thing to learn and left him wondering if perhaps he was to try to do the same.

Fleur and he chatted with Krum a bit and congratulated each other on successfully completing the Second Task before Krum decided to ask him something.

"Harry I was wondering if I might ask you a question, but you have to promise not to say anything about it to anyone, especially Hermione?" Krum asked nervously.

"Of course, go ahead." Harry told him.

"I recently learned that Madame Hooch, your Flying Instructor will be retiring at the end of this year. I would like an opportunity to be able to be close to Hermione if I can. You see, I really like her, more than any girl I have ever known and I would like to opportunity to see if anything more happens between us."

"Wouldn't that interfere with your Quidditch playing?" Harry asked.

He shrugged and said, "No more so than it has while I've been at school. As the Seeker I don't usually need to have the rest of the team around to practice with. I should be able to do most things here and being the Flying Instructor would not require taking too much time since I would only actually be teaching the first years at the beginning of the year and then of course supervise Quidditch matches."

"Well if you really want to do it, I think you should go for it." Harry stated, giving his advice.

"Then I think I shall." Krum answered.

DUELDUELDUEL

Dumbledore patiently stood over his next victim who was still currently sleeping: Barty Crouch Jr.

He had already knocked out the house elf that had tried to stop him as he entered the house, but he had actually been polyjuicing someone else anyway in case he was recognized: Mcnair, one of Barty Crouch Jr's old fellow Death Eaters, who was currently in hiding from the ministry and would be perfect for his little plan.

What he had learned from Barty Crouch's memories had given Dumbledore an idea. With the knowledge that his son was still alive and locked inside his house, he had decided that this presented a good opportunity.

If he were to play this right, Barty Crouch just might lead him to Voldemort himself if he were to free him and point him in the right direction in trying to find him.

He looked upon Voldemort with mixed feelings. At first when Voldemort had started up, he had actually agreed with many of Voldemort's ideals and admired him for his capabilities and had actually tried to recruit him to his cause.

He almost viewed it as a shame that Voldemort was unwillingly to see reason and listen to him instead of striking out on his own.

Still, he chose not to try and stop Voldemort when his Death Eater movement was still young and vulnerable and instead let it play out and see what they would do. At the time he had been having trouble building enough support in getting made the next head of the International Confederation of Wizards and also getting numerous laws passed at home and he figured that a war would help achieve those objectives.

With Voldemort attacking magical Britain as the incompetence of the Ministry began to shine through, he had stepped in appearing to be the only one capable of stopping him, which of course he was.

In gratitude, the Wizengamot bowed to his every demand, as he insisted that it was all needed in order to fight such a scourge. When Voldemort was finally defeated and the Death Eater movement broken up, he managed to convince the the International Confederation of Wizards that it was in large part due to his own efforts which gave him just enough of an edge to become the next Supreme Mugwump or Head of the organization, which only allowed him to spread his influence and his efforts to improve the Greater Good and society at large.

In short, Voldemort had essentially been quite useful to him during the first war.

For all his bluster and being the big bad unstoppable Dark Lord, Voldemort was a coward. He never fought a fight he wasn't already sure he could win.

Due to his own rather formidable skill Voldemort was always too scared to ever engage him in combat and simply hide while he let his goons do all the dirty work.

He was sure that he could of defeated Voldemort easily if he ever stuck around to actually fight him but he was too cowardly for that.

Whenever he managed to track Voldemort down, he'd run for it like the coward he was.

Voldemort definitely might have his uses though as he represented a seemingly more dangerous enemy for magical Britain and would likely get his political enemies, such as Narcissa and Amelia Black off his case and focus on Voldemort instead.

He might even be able to repeat his successes during the first war if it was done correctly.

The thing was, however, he couldn't simply let Voldemort run around outside of his control like he had last time. Instead he intended to use Barty Crouch Jr. to lead him straight to Voldemort before he could manage to come back and start where he left off.

As his victim still slept he finished with thievery discreetly done tracking and listening spells he had put on him. Not even Voldemort, in his current state, would be likely to detect them.

Finally he took another swig of polyjuice before putting the flask back into his pocket and kicking Barty Jr. to wake him up.

Barty Jr. began to stir and open his eyes, no doubt adjusting to the fact that his mind was now entirely his own for who knew how long as he looked up in surprise at who appeared to be Mcnair.

"Mcnair?" Barty Jr. asked.

"I finally learned of your plight from your witless father and came to rescue you." Dumbledore still pretending to be Mcnair said.

Barty Jr. began to got up. "Where is he?" He demanded angrily, "I"m going to kill him!"

"I've already captured and Imperioused your father." Dumbledore answered, "We'll keep him around until he no longer serves our purposes. Besides, it's just a bit of poetic justice that he suffer the same fate that you have all these years."

Barty Jr. still looked angry but finally nodded and said, "Where do we go from here? Surely you must have a plan."

"I do, and I need you for it. You see things have changed a lot since you were incarcerated. Most of us Death Eaters are either dead, in prison, or in hiding. We must be returned to our former glory." Dumbledore claimed.

"What do you need me for?" Barty Jr. asked.

"You're already presumed dead and no one is looking for you. I even risked my own life just coming here to rescue you since the Aurors are still trying to catch me. That means we need you for the most important part: finding and bringing back the Dark Lord." Dumbledore answered.

Barty Jr. looked surprised, but only for a second and then he developed a huge eager grin on his face. "I will always be loyal to the Dark Lord." Barty Jr. told him with a look of pride on his face.

"That is excellent to hear. I've received reports that the Dark Lord may be in hiding in Albania. I need you to find and locate him and then help with whatever he needs to be brought back as I have heard that he may not be at full strength or even have a body." Dumbledore said.

"How will I contact you or anyone else?" Barty Jr. then asked.

"It's far better if you don't try to contact anyone, not even me. Like I said most of us are in hiding and we can't risk attracting any unwanted attention to ourselves. Just use whatever money your father still has lying around the house and sell a few things if needed once you get out of Britain and you are less likely to be recognized. Also make sure you change your appearance somewhat with this wand I have for you." Dumbledore replied.

He tossed a wand at him and Barty Jr. grasped it reverently, likely not having used a wand in over a decade.

Still holding onto it, he gave it a few swishes and tested out a few spells. They weren't entirely done right but that was to be expected after having not used magic in so long, even if he had been using his own wand.

Finally he nodded and said, "It'll do."

Dumbledore helped him get on his way and continued giving him a few more instructions, it never occurring to Barty to ever question anything. After all he was his rescuer and he seemed to only want him to do the very thing he most wanted to do himself: bring back the Dark Lord.

Finally Barty Jr. left and Dumbledore Apparated away back to his office.

_'Step one complete.'_

DUELDUELDUEL

A few days later Snape finally finished the potion and he and Dumbledore finished transferring memories to both clone Lily and clone Ariana, the latter of which Dumbledore had supplied with false memories as he lacked a way to supply her with any originals beyond his own memories of her.

What he was doing had actually never been done before, supplying someone with a lifetime's worth of memories and have them believe that they were real.

It had taken him awhile to develop the technique and it would only work if they put the memories into a totally empty mind such as the ones they would be using, but it should work.

Now it was the moment of truth.

Dumbledore agreed to go ahead and start with clone Ariana first and then wait a few weeks before they started with Lily while she was monitored in case anything went wrong at Snape's insistence.

Pouring the potion down the girl's throat, they forced her esophagus to swallow the potion using a spell and then waited.

They watched as gradually color began to appear on her face and then her vital organs began to function.

Suddenly she took a huge breath as her eyes fluttered open.

"Where am I?" She asked.

"You just had an accident but we've managed to save you." Dumbledore insisted.

She looked just like her only without the gaunt and weak looking body that he remembered her having, the Ariana he had always wanted but had never got.

At the time of her death, Ariana had been fourteen and that was the same age that he had opted to have her be, only with some huge differences.

In life she had been afflicted by magical fits and accidents preventing her from being able to really function, being almost entirely confined to their house and away from the public.

This Ariana was totally free of that and instead had memories of a life not as his sister but as his great granddaughter produced from a squib mother, and then squib grandmother who he fictionally had had when he had sex with a Muggle many many years ago.

She would remember then that her parents had died recently and he had stepped in as her new guardian and caretaker.

"Do you remember the accident?" Dumbledore asked, checking to see if the memories he had implanted had worked.

She thought for a second and then said, "Yes I do, I was practicing a spell that you taught me and then it ended up blowing up somehow."

"I believe so as well." Dumbledore answered, relieved to find that his memory implantation had worked.

"Where's my wand?" She asked looking around.

He reverently handed her the wand that the original Ariana had gotten. They had hoped that getting her a wand would help straighten her magical fits out but ultimately they had decided not to let her use it.

Ultimately he had held onto it all this time as a keepsake and he was grateful he had as it would be necessary to prove something else.

She took her wand again and immediately he sensed that the wand was already accepting her as its owner.

Evidently her magical signature was exactly the same as the original Ariana which was very good news. He had actually programmed into her brain memories of learning spells while being home schooled by tutors for years but it would require her having the same magical signature of the real Ariana for it to work.

"Would you mind doing a few spells for us?" Dumbledore asked.

Ariana waved her wand and non-verbally used the Patronus Charm as a beautiful white horse erupted from her wand as it began to canter around the room.

While this would be considered impressive for a 14 year old to do, it was actually a rather simple spell for the girl if you included all the many other spells she had been programmed to know.

Ariana would have been quite powerful had it not been for her magical fits and with magical training, and as a supposed great granddaughter of his, widely considered one of the most powerful wizards in the world, no one would likely bat an eye if she was far more advanced and skilled than the average witch.

"Very good," He praised.

She smiled warmly at him as he had hoped, as he had implanted tons of very fond memories of him and her and her deeply loving and respecting him and his ideals.

This Ariana had been wiped of her weaknesses and instead made into the perfect girl. Very smart and very magically powerful and, most importantly, totally loyal to him and to his ideals. He smiled warmly back at her as he knew that this would only be the beginning.

No, she wasn't just like Ariana. She was better.

DUELDUELDUEL

Author's Note: While I had not originally intended Dumbledore to be a villain when I started the story, he certainly is one now, only just not your common villain. He genuinely believes in a very twisted way that he is actually doing the right thing and that his questionable actions are necessary for the greater good which is potentially more dangerous. Dumbledore represents a very real threat even if he is still at the beginning stages of his plan and still vulnerable and more easily stopped. He's also somewhat based off of another villain. Let's see if you can guess just who.


	35. An Ariana Affair

Author's Note: First of all, thanks to all the people who tried to guess who Dumbledore was based off of. I made him different enough and not obvious enough for it to be difficult to get, but I was hoping that at least someone would guess it correctly. No one did but I consider that a good thing since it means it is still really quite original. I hope at least some of you go: duh! Of course that's who he's based off of. I did get some really good answers nonetheless.

He is based somewhat loosely off of Darth Sidious from Star Wars. Just think about it: a secret evil mastermind who appears to simply be a diplomat and who used a war and manipulation of others to get extra power during war time and also get himself made head of government (head of the Wizengamot and the International Confederation of Wizards.)

They both then decide to build a secret clone army loyal only to them, and intend to do so without anyone realizing the clones are bad so they can take over the world or the galaxy and eliminate or replace anyone disloyal to them.

Darth Sidious has a secret organization made up of handpicked and totally loyal followers in his Imperial Guard (the red robed guys who stand behind him in the movie) and so does Dumbledore with his Order of the Phoenix.

If you really want to compare this story to Star Wars, Dumbledore would of course be Darth Sidious, a diplomat who realizes that in order to gain greater power he needs a war, and so helps create enemies in order to do so in Grindelwald and Voldemort (more on both of those later.)

The Ministry and the International Confederation of Wizards would be like the Senate, who due to either corruption or feeling that Dumbledore or Darth Sidious would be the only one capable of winning extended additional far reaching powers to both of them and elected them leader of government. Of course this was all for their own benefit.

Sirius, Narcissa, Amelia, Harry and the girls would be the Jedi in this case who are extremely worried about Dumbledore's power and his misuse of it and like the Jedi try to monitor him to discover his true motives.

Ariana will be kind of like Anakin Skywalker in that she will be used by both sides and it will be difficult to know just which side she will eventually choose (or would if episode 4 actually came after episode 3.) However I won't say if she'll end up choosing the dark side like Anakin does and serves Dumbledore in the new world order he is plotting. She is however pretty much Dumbledore's apprentice at this stage

Dumbledore tried to make Voldemort and of course Harry his apprentice but ultimately had to give up on both of those. Like Darth Sidious however with his apprentices such as Darth Maul he tries to make sure his potential apprentices have difficult and extreme childhoods in order to solidify their loyalty to him, with Harry and Voldemort.

For those of you who have played Star Wars the Force Unleashed II, Ariana will also be very much like the clone of Starkiller as she tries to figure out who and what she is, just what side she is on and who she is loyal to, etc. Also as Dumbledore's first clone and with the unique problem of having a background of memories solely off of what Dumbledore chose to give her she's going to have problems and gaps in information Dumbledore failed to give her. Also some of the original Ariana will also be part of her as well. All of these factors will play a role in what Ariana becomes and how Dumbledore chooses to handle the rest of the clones he's making.

Chapter 35

The Ariana Affair

After a few days of monitoring Ariana, he was already quite pleased with the results.

The girl was incredibly magically powerful and skilled, and while she would only have a memory of having learned the first 4 and a half years worth of spells, he had actually placed all of the spells that he himself knew into her brain.

Testing her with any of the spells caused her to almost immediately and innately know how to do them and she was programmed to believe that she was just a magical prodigy.

In addition she had plenty of books and other information also tightly packed into her brain and she would have memories of reading constantly and voraciously as a way to show why.

She also seemed to regard him with complete fondness and admiration and was quite eager to please him. He intended now to use that desire to please for his own purposes.

As he found her currently practicing spells in the room he had given her, he addressed her. "I've been thinking Ariana and I figure since you will be staying here for awhile that it would be a good idea for you to be able to be around people your own age."

Ariana looked a bit worried and asked, "So like people my own age?"

He had actually chosen not to give her any memories of friends as he hoped that it would only solidify her attachment and loyalty to him.

Still this didn't dissuade him from what he wanted her to do however.

"The group of students I intend to have you be around are actually much, much stronger and smarter than your average witch or wizard which means I will need someone even stronger and smarter than they are, which means I need you. I need you to try and keep them in line." Dumbledore told her.

He was of course referring to Harry and the girls he was currently betrothed to. While he hadn't been able to find reason to punish them directly, he knew that they were up to something and probably snooping around in things they shouldn't. If he put Ariana into their same year and house she would be able to keep an eye on them. Additionally he was hopeful Ariana might perhaps learn something about Narcissa and Amelia Black and their doubtless plans against him.

"Are they troublemakers?" She asked.

"Of a sort, although they are far too smart to be caught. I must warn you that they will be crafty and devious and try to convince you of things about me that simply aren't true. I need to know if I can trust you not to fall for their tricks?" Dumbledore asked.

"Who could ever badmouth you grandfather? You're the best wizard that ever lived!" Ariana said, sounding amazed that anyone could speak bad of him, "I could never believe that you would ever do anything bad."

"Unfortunately, there are still plenty of wizards who just don't understand that I'm only looking out for what is best for them and the Greater Good. Hopefully you can manage to convince them of that but if you can't, just try and find out what they are up to. I have gotten rather suspicious that they may be up to something and if not them, the people who watch them." Dumbledore informed her.

"Just who are these students?" Ariana asked.

He handed her a folder and she looked it over, it having several pages on each of them.

"Harry Potter?" She asked as she stared down at a picture of him and then his file.

"I'm sure that you are familiar with the boy-who-lived aren't you?" Dumbledore asked, although he already knew the answer, having already implanted that information into her.

"He's the boy who apparently defeated Voldemort when he was just a baby, even I knew that, but I'm surprised by all this other stuff about him. Two time World Dueling Champion, consistent Outstandings in all his classes..." Ariana noted.

"Most of them should have rather high grades and 4 of them are world class duelers." Dumbledore admitted.

"Wait a minute. He's betrothed to all of these girls as well!" Ariana yelled in surprise.

"He is." Dumbledore confirmed.

"How did he manage all that and how could all those girls possibly all get along?" Ariana asked.

"It's all in the files." Dumbledore told her.

Ariana continued to look over their files and learn as much as she could about them.

"I'm not so sure I can manage to keep all of them in line." Ariana confessed.

"I would not have you do something unless I thought you were equal to the task," Dumbledore told her, "you are a Dumbledore and far better than anyone, remember that."

"I will grandfather." Ariana said reverently, as if promising not to let him down.

DUELDUELDUEL

The next morning, Harry was woken up early by Su, Gabrielle, and Fleur to get their early morning duel practice in.

Many people simply assumed that he was a great duelist simply because he was the Boy-Who-Lived or that he was just incredibly magically powerful.

Neither was actually true - though he did have the largest reserve of raw magical power out of all of his friends - he had only accomplished what he had through a lot of hard work and plenty of help and encouragement.

They also tended to assume that since he had won the last two dueling tournaments and was a world champion that he was definitely the best, or even the best in Britain or perhaps the world.

Again this was simply not true, and while he had to admit that he was a world class duelist at least for his age group, he could still be quite easily defeated by an older, more experienced duelist or even Gabrielle or Su who he would consider to be just as good as he was. In fact he fully expected one of them to take the title from him next year.

Both girls were very smart, smarter than he ever would be in fact, but devoted much of their efforts to dueling while still maintaining excellent grades in school. Most would be surprised to learn that it was actually Susan, not even Hermione, who consistently had the highest marks in school, even though she never tried to flaunt or brag about it.

However much he was used to being around incredibly skilled and intelligent girls, he was not prepared to find another girl who appeared to be their own age already there in the practice room, currently performing various spells.

"Oh, hello!" The girl greeted as soon as she saw them.

"Sorry we just always use this room in the mornings and didn't know anyone would already be in here." Su admitted.

"Dumbledore told me that it was okay for me to practice in here so I thought I would." The girl replied, "He didn't say someone else used it at this time."

"It's all right, and it's not like we had it reserved or anything." Gabrielle told her.

"I don't believe I've actually seen you before even though you look like you'd be in our year group." Harry observed.

The girl smiled and said, "That's because I'm new. I'm Ariana, Ariana Taylor."

She came over to him and shook his hand politely.

"Pleased to meet you Ariana." Harry answered, "I'm Harry, Harry Potter."

He had been expecting her eyes to immediately look up at his scar as everyone usually did but she kept her eyes right on his own eyes and said, "I know who you are."

"Who doesn't know who Harry is?" Gabrielle asked, "I'm from France and even I'd heard of Harry Potter."

"I'm actually from the United States and even they have heard of the great Harry Potter." Ariana admitted before grinning, "I promise not to hold you being a celebrity against you unless you'd like me to worship you, fan you with palm fronds, or ask for your autograph."

She said the last bit sarcastically and he immediately decided he rather liked Ariana. "I think I can do without that kind of celebrity worship." Harry replied back.

"Well I'm Gabrielle Delacour." Gabrielle greeted by extending her own hand.

"I'm her older sister Fleur Delacour." Fleur said, greeting her as well.

Su, usually less social, nevertheless decided to be polite and introduce herself as well.

"I've actually heard of all 3 of you as well." Ariana replied.

Harry's eyebrows rose and he guessed, "A dueling fan?"

"Of a sort I suppose, I've read a lot about dueling but never really thought about actually dueling professionally myself." Ariana admitted.

"Well I'm not going to lie to you, you'll have some pretty stiff competition if you do decide to take up dueling, especially if you're in 4th year like us." Su answered.

Ariana grinned and said, "I've always liked a challenge."

Su grinned back, rising to her rather cheeky reply and said, "How about I show you just what I mean? I'll try to go easy on you seeing as you're just an amateur."

"I'd be happy to!" Ariana replied.

Gabrielle tried to explain the rules to Ariana, but she waved it away, "Thanks, but I should be able to figure it out on my own."

The duel got under way and Harry rather hoped that Su would not be too hard on the girl as she had a tendency to be a bit overly competitive. Last week Moody had chosen pairs for them to break off into and practice a spell and by the end of it Su's partner, Dean Thomas had been reduced to tears despite her protests she had gone easy on him.

However as the duel progressed it appeared that Su was at least starting out easy, but as Ariana continued to dodge her spells and fire off ones of her own she began to step up her game.

To his complete surprise, Ariana responded in a similar manner as both girls struggled to gain an advantage.

Su began to use ever better spells, and Ariana did the same. Delayed reaction spells, arcing spells, midair explosion spells, Ariana was performing just as well as Su, and he began to seriously doubt her suggestion that she was merely an amateur. She was definitely a world class duelist whether she had actually competed or not.

As the duel progressed, Su began to tire but Ariana still appeared to be in excellent shape, merely grinning the entire time.

He would never have believed it, but when Ariana finally managed to disarm Su, he actually clapped for her, unable to restrain himself from showing that he was impressed.

"That was amazing!" Gabrielle exclaimed, "Where did you learn how to duel like that?"

"I was actually home schooled and received plenty of private tutors." Ariana answered before extending a hand to Su, "You did fantastic as well."

Su seemed unhappy that she had lost to her, but even she highly valued a good duelist when she saw one and took her hand.

Harry still saw a glint in her eye however that signified that this wasn't over.

He could already see a rivalry forming, but whether it would be friendly or not remained to be seen.

"It appears I might have taken all of your practice time however." Ariana confessed.

"It's all right, and if you would like to start practicing with us you're free to." Harry invited.

Ariana smiled yet again and said, "I would like that very much."

"Would you like to come down with us to breakfast?" Gabrielle suggested.

"Sure but I'll have to go speak with Dumbledore for a few minutes before breakfast." Ariana replied.

Following them all to the Great Hall, they chatted amicably with the girl about what life at Hogwarts was like.

When they got to the great hall, Ariana left them and went up to the teacher's table to go speak with Dumbledore, presumably about her Sorting.

Dumbledore spoke with her for a minute and then stood up and addressed all the students already assembled for breakfast, "Students it is my pleasure to announce that we will be having a new student. She has been home schooled while living in the United States, but has now decided to start attending here. Please welcome Ariana Taylor!"

Ariana stepped forward as everyone politely applauded for her.

"Before we start with breakfast, we will have her be Sorted." Dumbledore announced.

Ariana was handed the Sorting Hat and she put it on, waiting for the it to finally decide.

The Sorting Hat took a long time in Sorting her, but finally it yelled out, "Peeves!"

In order to make her feel welcome, Harry cheered and clapped along with the other occupants of House Peeves. They were so used to Dumbledore's standard glower at students being Sorted into their House they didn't notice his latest expression of distaste was decidedly forced.

"Does this mean she'll be sharing our bedroom with us?" Pansy asked, somewhat unhappily.

At first he was confused why this should bother her so much, but then he realized why; while having nothing so far against Ariana, they were rather used to Harry's frequent visits to their room, engaging in certain activities that certainly wouldn't be allowed.

"We'll just have to figure all that out later." Susan whispered back as she grinned over at Ariana who was now approaching their table.

Sitting down at the end of the table with a smile, she told him, "What do you know, it looks like I get to be in the cool house."

Tonks looked at Harry and then asked, "Do you two know each other?"

"Me, Gabrielle, Fleur, and Su met her in the dueling room this morning," Harry admitted, "it turns out we have some more competition."

Tonks appeared surprised by this statement, but it was Susan who spoke next.

"Welcome Ariana, I'm Susan Bones." Susan greeted as she turned to the rest of them, "You want to go around the table and introduce yourselves everyone?"

Everyone in their House quickly gave their names to her, and Krum, Roxanne, and Marie did the same as they were also sitting nearby.

Ariana listened to each of their names as she looked over at each of them. "I'm very pleased to meet all of you." She told them all politely.

"So what year are you in?" Susan said, as usual the most friendly.

"Fourth." She answered, causing Susan to grin.

Gabrielle said, "You'll probably have the same schedule as us and share a dorm room."

"That sounds like ever so much fun." Ariana claimed, grinning widely.

The girls each got to explaining more about Hogwarts, while he listened absently as he began to pile onto his plate the food that had just arrived.

Of course, the marital situation between him and the girls eventually came up, and Ariana appeared surprised, but not as surprised as he had been expecting her to be.

"Wow, sounds like you're one lucky guy Harry." Ariana claimed.

"I certainly am." He agreed, smiling over at each of the girls.

Ariana seemed to be a really nice and friendly girl he concluded as he listened to and somewhat participated in the discussion they were having.

However, he was admittedly mostly preoccupied since Pansy, who was currently sitting next to him, kept rubbing his leg and giving him 'The Look'.

He had grown quite fond of the look as it always meant they wanted to at least go make out somewhere so needless to say, he quickly ate and hurried off with her.

As soon as they reached the relative safety of the Common Room, she pounced on him as they began making out.

He wasn't entirely certain just how long they made out for, but when the other girls all got back, Pansy already had her bra off, and the two top buttons of her shirt while he cupped one of her boobs.

The girls were already quite used to finding him in such a predicament, but when he saw Ariana among them he was a bit more worried as to how she would react.

There was a huge pause as everyone stared at her.

Finally she asked rather confused, "What are you doing?"

"Sorry, I suppose we really should have gone into my room or something." Harry admitted sheepishly.

"Actually I'm just kind of confused why you are touching each other like that." Ariana replied not so much bothered by the act as she was confused by the entire thing. She was drawing a complete blank on why two people would attache their lips together and rub their hands across eachother's bodies.

"Since it feels good of course, I mean haven't you ever fantasized about a boy?" Pansy asked.

Ariana looked rather and puzzled, and after a slow blink of contemplation, she asked, "What do you mean?"

"Oh, I see." Susan seemed to understand, "Are you just attracted to girls instead?"

Ariana once again looked puzzled and said, "I don't think so. Come to think of it I don't think I've ever been attracted to anyone."

"Never!" Tonks exclaimed, "That's impossible!"

"I don't know, I guess I just haven't before." Ariana answered with an uncomfortable shrug.

"I have to admit that sounds really strange." Susan replied, "So... not even just stared at someone's butt or something?"

Ariana tried to think again but finally declared, "No, I really can't think of a single time."

"It could just be because she was home schooled and probably just didn't see a lot of people." Gabrielle suggested.

"I suppose that's possible but we'll just have to figure out Ariana's sexuality later." Su reminded them all, "We've got classes and we can't have Ariana late for her first day."

Getting their stuff together, they hurried off to their first class, which was Defense Against the Dark Arts. After briefly welcoming her new student, Professor Moody got right to the lesson.

"Today we will be learning about the Injunctivitis spell." Moody told them.

Since they shared this class with the Gryffindors, Hermione raised her hand and asked, "We're supposed to be covering the disarming spell today professor."

Moody merely grinned his awful grin, and said, "I should hardly think it's a surprise that I don't always go by the book. Criminals certainly don't, and neither should you."

That certainly set Hermione off. She was the type to always read and study the materials before class, and while Harry and the girls usually did too, they didn't take it to the level of unnecessary excessive that Hermione did in making sure she had much of it memorized.

"Now can anyone tell me about the Injunctivitis spell?" Moody asked.

Nobody raised their hands, even Hermione, so Harry guessed that no one actually knew, but Moody didn't seem to realize that.

"How about the new girl? What is the Injunctivitis curse?" Moody asked her.

It seemed awfully hard on Moody to ask the new girl a question the rest of the class didn't seem to know, but Ariana surprised everyone by saying, "According to page 312 of the Dark Shadow, the Injunctivitis curse is used by necromancers to create Inferi, which are reanimated bodies controlled by the caster to cause mayhem and destruction. Since the spell is also partially a ritual it requires the following..."

"I'll have to stop you there." Moody said, now looking at her very curiously, "That book you are referring to is a class A banned dark magic book by the Ministry and it is illegal even to own or read it."

"It is? I did grow up in the United States so perhaps they have different laws there?" Ariana claimed.

"Perhaps, but I would caution you against reading anything of the sort again. Books like that can be quite dark and most books that do mention the Injunctivitis curse will only mention it, that would be all, and only because of its use during both the war with Grindelwald and the War with Voldemort." Moody admitted.

Ariana nodded, but Moody still had his magical fixed on her for a second more before addressing the class once again.

"She is, however, completely correct. The Injunctivitis curse is used to create Inferi and has been used in the past to devastating effect. An inferi is not actually a person brought back from the dead since there is no known spell that can do that but merely regained control of the body. It must obey the will of its caster and has only basic thinking skills, usually to kill whoever gets in its way. They are entirely incapable of feeling any emotions, including pain, and also resistant to most spells. The best way to destroy them, should you come into contact with one, is with a powerful fire spell."

Moody continued to instruct them and Harry thought that it was rather fascinating stuff, if not rather morbid and gruesome. He had never realized you could actually do that to a dead body, and while he definitely would never want to learn how to do it himself, he could see why Moody had decided to teach them about it since it had apparently been used even so recently as by Voldemort.

As he listened, he heard of some of the horrible things that Inferi had apparently done on Voldemort's orders.

Still he couldn't help but wonder just why Ariana would read a book that dark or actually want to know how to make an Inferi. It was rather unsettling admittedly.

Still he decided to reserve judgment on her, as she was still new and at least seemed like a nice girl.

For their next class, Transfiguration, Professor McGonagall set them the task of turning a tissue into a sock.

The task at first seemed simple enough, but it turned out not to be as they all struggled with it.

"My sock appears to be made out of tissue paper..." Tonks claimed as she held up her sock for them all, a rather flimsy looking thing.

Harry was confident that Tonks could actually make a perfectly good sock if she wanted to, having already done this spell back when she was in school the first time, but in order to keep her cover she always pretended to struggle like the rest of them.

Looking over at Ariana, Su asked, "How about you Ariana? How have you been doing?"

"It's coming along okay I guess." She responded.

"It looks like you haven't even tried yet." Susan pointed out.

Pointing her wand at the tissue, she used the spell and immediately it turned into a perfect sock and as Harry looked over at it, it even had a picture of a wizard riding a broomstick with the moon in the background on it.

Professor McGonagall came by and looked over at the sock, even though Ariana tried to hide it from her.

"By Merlin!" McGonagall exclaimed as she picked up the sock, "Never in my life have I ever..."

"That was Ariana's first try too..." Pansy pointed out.

"I've never seen such an impressive first attempt." McGonagall claimed, "Perhaps if you spent a few weeks at it you might be able to get a sock of this quality, but not in a first attempt. That _was_ your first attempt, correct?"

"I remember reading about this spell but I've never actually used it before." Ariana admitted uncomfortably.

McGonagall gave her one of her rare smiles and smiled at her, before saying, "Take 10 points to Peeves."

Ariana looked at them all and said, "You really didn't have to point me out like that. I don't really like attention all that much."

Since he constantly got this himself, he felt he identified with Ariana there and told her, "Don't worry I feel the same way, I hate all the attention and fame I get."

She smiled at him gratefully.

"I just feel really nervous around lots of people and scared to use my powers, almost like they could be dangerous or something." Ariana admitted.

"You definitely did a lot of incredible magic in our duel this morning." Su reminded her.

"That's because I really wanted to impress you though. I've never really had any friends before so I thought I needed to get some." Ariana confessed.

Susan seemed particularly pleased by this response and put hand on top of hers.

"Don't worry, we'll be your friends Ariana." Susan offered.

"Well maybe you could at least teach us just how you did that then?" Su suggested.

Ariana got up to go help her but then said, "Actually I'm not really sure just how I know how to do it. I just... did it."

"How could you just do it if you don't really know?" Su asked.

Ariana shrugged and said, "I just do."

DUELDUELDUEL

A week later and Ariana felt completely overwhelmed in some things but quite happy in others.

School was turning out to be scary and a part of her felt like she shouldn't be here where there was so many people and had to do magic that she still thought was dangerous, almost like she might hurt someone if she used it.

However everyone quickly realized that she was extremely talented and smart and kept trying to rely on her for advice.

A lot of the time she knew how to help them but sometimes she just didn't know why she knew something or was able to cast a particular spell. She just did.

At least she had succeeded in doing what Dumbledore had asked her to do in getting close to Harry and the girls he was betrothed to, although she couldn't really understand what Dumbledore was so worried about. They all seemed so nice and helpful, and were also very smart and powerful.

Gratefully, they were even understanding when she wasn't able to help them in class or simply didn't feel comfortable. In fact they were downright amazing on picking up when she was uncomfortable or nervous.

Last night, they had even showed her how to finger herself, and Merlin did it feel good!

She wondered just why she had never done so before or at least been attracted to other people.

At least she knew she now liked guys because she definitely liked looking at Harry.

The girls had actually caught her staring at him more than once but didn't actually try to stop her from doing it. She was grateful for this too, she liked looking.

One of her favorite things was to watch them put their lips onto Harry's or kissing as they called it, it just looked like they were really enjoying themselves a lot and from observing them, she realized that all they had to do was simply lean in and kiss him and he would kiss them back.

It looked really enjoyable so she decided that she definitely had to try that.

She finally got her chance when it was just the two of them after Harry decided to stay behind in the library and do a little research on a spell he was hoping to use for dueling, while she volunteered to help him, remembering reading a book that covered that particular spell.

After he copied down what she remembered, he thanked her, "I don't know how you always manage to remember so much, but thanks Ariana," Harry answered.

"It was my pleasure Harry." Ariana replied. Just like the girls had done, she stuck out her lips and moved in and kissed him.

His lips were soft and warm and he tasted really good, yet when she tried to continue kissing him as she moved her lips against his, he actually pushed her back.

"What's wrong Harry?" Ariana asked.

"No offense Ariana, but we really can't be doing this." Harry replied.

"Why not?" She asked, confused, "I've seen you doing the same with the other girls, why not me?"

"The relationship I have with the girls is different. I'm already betrothed to them or I'm going to be married to them." Harry answered.

"I saw Krum kiss Hermione yesterday and they aren't set to be married." Ariana answered.

"That's because they're dating and already know each other pretty well. Before you just go and kiss someone like that you have to get to know them by going to Hogsmeade together, eating a romantic meal not just in the Great Hall, taking long walks around the lake, or holding hands, that kind of stuff." Harry told her.

That sounded pretty good to her.

"I'd like to do all of those things with you Harry, so what would I need to do to start dating you, as you called it?" Ariana asked.

Harry seemed to be rendered speechless and she waited for half a minute for him to finally say, "You mean you've never even heard of dating?"

She strained to remember reading about anything like that or having witnessed it, but simply couldn't recall anything. "I can't say that I have." She replied honestly.

"I've never visited the United States, but I'm pretty sure they have dating there too, although I suppose I could be wrong." Harry confessed.

"I don't know why I've never heard of it but why don't you show me what its like to date someone so we can do all of those things you mentioned and kiss?" Ariana suggested.

"I don't think that would be a good idea. I've already got a lot of girls already and I'm just not sure they would be happy about that." Harry confided.

"Well what if they say yes then?" Ariana asked. She _really_ liked that kiss, and she wasn't about to just take no for an answer if there were other options.

He paused before answering, and finally answered slowly, "I'm really not sure they would say yes to something like that."

"Don't worry Harry, I'll ask them," Ariana said, now excited.

She really liked Harry and dating him sounded really fun to her. Then they could do more kissing, and maybe he would even touch her boobies! Susan had just gushed about how good _that_ felt.

Yet as she was about to go ask them, a little first year boy approached her and handed her a note.

As she opened it, she realized that it was from Dumbledore requesting to meet with her immediately.

"Sorry Harry, I've got to go. Bye!" She answered before hurrying out.

When she got up to Dumbledore's office, he bade for her to sit down then began speaking to her.

"So how has it been going so far? Have you gained their trust yet?" Dumbledore asked.

"I've done as you asked and am already starting to become friends with them." Ariana said proudly, happy to be able to please her grandfather.

"Excellent," Dumbledore praised, "just keep working at it and see if they let anything slip."

"I have to say though grandfather I don't see what the big deal is about them. They've been really nice to me and treated me kindly. Susan even told me that she wants to be my friend. I've never actually had a friend before." Ariana confessed.

Dumbledore's smile faded as he actually chastised her, and said, "I told you not to be fooled by the act they put on. They can be really bad people who threaten to jeopardize everything I've worked for. Even though you can't see it yet, they'll show their true colors eventually and you need to be strong for that if we are to find out what they are up to."

She was unhappy but she wasn't about to disagree with her grandfather as she trusted him to know best, after all Dumbledore was merely looking out for her and wanted to protect her.

"Yes grandfather." She replied loyally.

Dumbledore seemed satisfied that his wishes would be obeyed by her and then asked, "So how is everything else going? School going okay?"

"It's going pretty good, although students in other Houses keep trying to get me to show off." Ariana replied.

"Why shouldn't you show off? You are a Dumbledore and it is perfectly okay to prove to everyone that you are the best." Dumbledore insisted.

"I don't see why I should. It just feels like my magic could hurt other people when I do it around them so I feel like I should be careful..." Ariana answered.

"Nonsense, you should be totally in control of your magic now Ariana." Dumbledore insisted.

"My magic doesn't seem to totally feel that way. I feel almost like I've hurt someone in the past with it." Ariana replied.

"I suppose I could give you a checkup later and see if perhaps you have some sort of magical illness or something somehow." Dumbledore suggested vaguely.

"I don't feel like I'm sick, just it's a part of me." Ariana told him.

Dumbledore looked unhappy but finally said, "Alright, well I'll check just to make sure."

"Thanks grandfather." Ariana told him.

Author's Note: Dumbledore's first clone already isn't working out the way he had hoped as Ariana questions him a bit. Ariana's magic, being the same as the original Ariana's actually remembers somewhat the magial fits she used to have as she worried about it being dangerous and unstable and hurting someone. Also Dumbledore forgot to give her any memories of sexual attraction which is why she is a bit confused concerning that area. Hope you liked it!

_Beta's Note:_ Slicerness here with a friendly service announcement. Remember kids, if you make a sin against nature in the form of bringing back the dead, remember to give her memories of sex, otherwise without any kind of forewarning or tolerance, any kind of pleasure is going to act like the first hit of a drug to them. Pleasure addiction is a very real problem and effects almost 82 percent of clones and re-animated humans with altered memories; it's up to you to prevent this incredibly kinky affliction!


	36. Room for One More?

Chapter 36

Room For One More?

After examining Ariana and finding nothing magically or medically wrong with her, he was still not pleased.

Ariana was supposed to be this mega powerful girl. She literally had nearly all the magical skill and knowledge that he himself knew, which was probably the most substantial on earth, having dedicated 150 years worth of study to it.

Being so young, she could be considered a prodigy, and yet she felt no inclination to show off and prove herself to be the next great Dumbledore he had wanted her to be.

Instead she was actually afraid to use her powers, instead choosing to dispense knowledge to others.

Having been a teacher himself, he understood the value of what teaching could bring but it wasn't to help others learn, it was to make sure his students admired him

Ariana didn't appear to be seeking for that type of admiration, merely friendship and knowing she had done a good deed. She was only supposed to be seeking for admiration and approval from him, not anyone else though.

He had wanted her to work perfectly as his sister but he was starting to realize that just might not be the case. If he needed to however he could simply have her replaced with a perfected copy, a better Ariana, who would follow him without question.

There were bound to be problems with his first successfully made clone, and Ariana, even if she didn't work out, could help highlight her weaknesses and problems so they could be fixed when he started making more clones.

He would just have to monitor her and find out.

DUELDUELDUEL

Ariana nervously approached the two girls Susan and Pansy, who were by now in their room getting ready for bed. She selected Susan first, since she was usually the nicest of all the girls.

"Susan, can I ask you something?" Ariana asked.

"Sure what's up?" Susan asked.

"Is it okay if I start dating Harry?" Ariana blurted out.

Pansy who had been listening said, "No, I really don't think that would be a good idea Ariana."

She felt hurt, was it because Pansy just didn't like her? She wanted to date Harry more than anything and yet she was saying no.

Susan however then responded, "Why not Pansy? I have no problem with it if Harry doesn't."

"We've already got too many girls with him already, I just don't think it would be a good idea to have another. Nothing against Ariana, I just think we should keep things the way they are," Pansy responded.

Ariana felt like she might cry. They didn't want her? Was she just not good or pretty enough?

Susan looked over at Pansy again and then said, "Come on, let's go talk somewhere else."

Ariana followed her out of the bedroom, the Common Room, and then finally an empty bedroom off to the left of it.

"Why doesn't Pansy like me?" Ariana asked, now starting to cry. She'd couldn't recall ever feeling so miserable before.

"No, it's not that at all," Susan insisted, "Pansy likes you just fine."

"Then how come she doesn't want me to date Harry?" Ariana asked, upset.

"She just feels a bit threatened. The thing is when you're already sharing just one guy among six girls you end up feeling like you need to compete against one another for his attention, and Pansy already feels enormous pressure. She won't usually say anything since the additional girls that have been added so far have all been beyond either Harry's or the girl's control but she still can get rather jealous."

"She hasn't been quite able to shake the feeling that she is the most plain and least beautiful of us, which causes her to be a bit protective of Harry."

"Pansy is so pretty though!" Ariana argued, shocked that Pansy could ever feel that way.

"You know that, and I know that, but Pansy still doesn't and I don't really blame her. All of the girls are rather beautiful and for someone as insecure about themselves like Pansy it becomes an issue." Susan answered.

"I'm not trying to steal Harry away from you, I really like all of you, more than anyone I've ever known my own age." Ariana replied.

"I'm sure you weren't, but when we only have so little time with Harry anyway, some of the girls might get jealous if they find you stealing some of that time from them if you were to date Harry." Susan answered, "How about you find out if there is anyone else you like other than him that you would want to date?"

Ariana thought a moment. It just seemed like everyone else was still so scary to her or at least she felt nervous around, having never really been around much people being home schooled. She really only felt comfortable around Harry and the girls and she wanted someone like them to date.

Then she got a great idea.

"How about I date you then?" Ariana suggested.

"Me?" Susan asked, sounding very surprised.

"Sure. You're really beautiful and nice and I like you. You also apparently don't get a lot of time with Harry so maybe I could help out as his replacement when he isn't available," Ariana answered.

Susan to think about this for a moment and then said, "I thought you realized you didn't like girls?"

"I don't know what I like, but I really would like to find out if I do or not." Ariana told her.

"Well I suppose I have been a bit curious myself..." Susan confessed, "All right, I guess we could at least try it."

Ariana squealed with happiness and then asked, "Can we kiss then?"

Susan reluctantly nodded and Ariana leaned in and kissed her. She didn't feel or taste the same as Harry but she definitely still liked it.

"Ooh you feel really good Susan." Ariana commented after she had withdrawn her lips.

"So did you." Susan replied.

"You want to do that again?" Ariana asked.

"Sure." Susan agreed and Ariana happily kissed her again, this time for longer as Susan kissed back.

She could definitely get used to this, she thought. "I can't wait to tell the other girls." Ariana told her.

"I think we should try and keep this a secret Ariana." Susan confessed.

"Why?" Ariana asked, confused. She had a girlfriend now, someone to kiss and do who knew what else with, and she wanted to tell the whole world. Maybe the other girls would even want to join in so they could feel this good too with eachother, and Harry.

"I like you Ariana but I'm not sure just if we should make a big deal out of this as I'm still not sure this is what I really want. It's been nice kissing you, but I'd like to see how things go before we go telling anyone else. They might freak out or something and if I ultimately decide this isn't what I want, I want to be able to decide that privately without their influence. Can you understand that?"

She didn't really understand what the big deal was herself but if it was important to Susan then she would respect that. "Of course." She told her.

DUELDUELDUEL

The next morning after making out with Susan, Ariana woke up in pain.

It wasn't pain on her arm or leg or something, it was coming from her _special area_.

Reaching down and pulling down her panties, she saw that there was blood down there.

"Hey girls, I'm bleeding down here." She admitted as she looked at the other girls already awake.

"So... that happens every cycle to me." Su replied, a bit cranky since she was still half asleep.

"I've never had it happen to me before though!" Ariana confessed.

"So you're telling me that _this_ has never happened to you?" Susan asked, gesturing between her legs.

"Is that even possible?" Gabrielle asked.

"Of course it is, plenty of girls go through puberty but don't get their first period until they're 14." Susan remarked before turning to Ariana, "Well congratulations, I suppose, for getting your first period."

"I still don't know what that is, could you explain that to me?" Ariana asked.

"Nobody ever told you?" Fleur asked in disbelief.

"No?" Ariana replied, wondering if that was somehow wrong.

"Of course, the girl who knows about everything doesn't know about periods." Pansy commented.

"I'll teach you all about it then." Susan answered.

When she was finally done talking to Susan, she was still amazed at what she hadn't known about her own body. So she would be really going through this every month? Actually quicker than every month since a cycle was faster than that.

She was grateful that Susan and the other girls were around to teach her or otherwise she would have had no clue and been quite afraid. However she wondered why nobody had bothered to teach her before.

The good thing was that Susan assured her that because of her periods that it would allow her to one day have a baby.

She decided that she definitely wanted a baby, a nice cute baby with black hair and beautiful green eyes...

Of course she had originally been thinking a baby with red hair and blue eyes like Susan but then Susan had told her that two women couldn't have a baby only a man and a woman could.

This had caused her to think of what it would be like to have Harry's baby. While Susan had persuaded her not to try anything with Harry for now she still hadn't given up on him.

As much as she liked Susan, she still really liked looking at Harry more.

The good news however was that there was apparently a Hogsmeade weekend coming up and Susan had invited her to go with her. They of course wouldn't obviously be dating, just appearing to be going as friends, but she still regarded it as her first official date so she was excited nonetheless.

All she had to do was talk to her Grandfather Dumbledore and get him to sign the permission slip allowing her to go.

When she got up to his office, Dumbledore greeted her warmly and asked how she was doing.

"I'm doing great grandfather, I'm making new friends and I can honestly say I've never been happier in my life!" Ariana replied.

"That's wonderful but how have you been doing with finding out any information about Harry, the girls, or perhaps the Blacks?" Dumbledore asked.

"Nothing yet, but I don't really see the point anyway and I really don't like having to spy on my friends. They seem like nice people even if they don't seem like you very much, but I'm sure I can make them see you're really a great man simply trying to look out for them." Ariana claimed.

"We've already discussed this Ariana, you simply just don't understand, I need you to trust me and do what I ask." Dumbledore replied.

"I think it might be a good idea for me to understand." Ariana argued, "There is just so much I've realized that I never really knew about myself and I think its better that I know about them now. How come I never knew what a period was, or liked boys, to know what it feels like to be kissed, or even have friends my own age?"

Dumbledore blushed at her mentioning her period but finally said, "You don't need relationships or kissing, Ariana. I've managed to get rid of my attraction to others and remain totally celibate and there is no reason why you can't as well."

"It feels so good though grandfather." Ariana countered.

It really did feel good and she couldn't imagine why anyone wouldn't want to have that feeling.

"I didn't make you to question my authority!" Dumbledore yelled, completely losing his composure.

Ariana was confused. She respected her grandfather but she couldn't understand why he seemed to have a problem with just about everything she did or wanted to do, after all, all the other teenagers were doing it.

Dumbledore managed to straighten himself up and say, "You don't understand now, but you'll be grateful later. I need you to get close to Harry and those girls of his to find out information, that's all. Can you do that for me?"

"Yes grandfather..." Ariana answered.

"Excellent, just let me know if there is anything I can do to help with that." Dumbledore told her.

"Well there is one thing," Ariana began, "you see I'm starting to get close to Susan and I think it might be a good idea if you allowed me to go to Hogsmeade so I could get her to open up a bit more to me."

Of course it was actually because she wanted an excuse to have him let her go.

"While I applaud your efforts, going to Hogsmeade is simply off the table." Dumbledore stated firmly.

"Why not?" Ariana asked.

"Since I said so." Dumbledore replied firmly.

"I promise to be really good there?" Ariana promised.

"No." Dumbledore said.

As she stared into his eyes, she could tell that there would just be no reasoning with him, so instead she chose to remain silent, even though she was very disappointed. "Yes grandfather." She answered respectfully.

DUELDUELDUEL

While Ariana was busy talking to Dumbledore, everyone else was currently studying in the library. Susan was busy herself when Gabrielle approached her.

"Susan could I talk to you about something?" Gabrielle asked nervously, "It's about Ariana."

Her first thought was that Gabrielle had found out about her and Ariana and while it wouldn't be totally devastating, she would have preferred to discuss that in private.

"I'm kind of worried about her. You see it just strikes me as odd that she somehow seems to know so much about everything, including super dark magic, yet knew nothing about relationships or sexual puberty."

"She was home schooled so I would imagine that it might be different for her." Susan defended.

"I know she was home schooled but even if she grew up in a convent I highly doubt that she wouldn't know that kind of stuff." Gabrielle pointed out.

"Well I understand your concern, and I was worried at first too but she just seems so innocent about it, and it's not exactly a crime not to know those things." Susan reminded her.

"What about that time that Moody taught about Inferi? She seemed to know exactly what those were and even how to make them. Not exactly you're bedtime reading for your average 14 year old girl unless they were some sort of dark witch." Gabrielle then said.

That seemed less explainable but she still was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt.

Surprisingly it was Pansy who decided to jump into the conversation and defend her.

"To you it would seem quite unusual and alarming but in a lot of families it's more common to teach their children the dark arts." Pansy admitted, "My father actually tried to get me into necromancy when I was younger because of the amount of money they make and the value they might be to a prospective husband."

"Why on earth would anyone consider that valuable?" Fleur asked.

"It might sound really grotesque but a good necromancer can actually reanimate a person just enough to reveal bank account information, where valuables are kept, etc." Pansy replied, "The problem is usually you have to start rather young for you to be able to really learn how."

"I suppose that could be valuable, even if I personally can't see why it would be worth it." Fleur confessed.

"It's certainly not something I would recommend either, but I can at least see why Ariana might have had parents or a tutor of some sort that might have tried to teach her stuff like that." Pansy replied.

"I think we should still continue to keep an eye on her." Gabrielle replied, "There is just something off about her, even if I can't quite put my foot on it."

"I agree," Tonks said, "she seems like a nice girl but if there is one thing we should have all learned by now, its that we can't always trust everyone or believe that they are who they say they are."

Although no words were spoken, the fact that Tonks was currently still there as a spy seemed to be proof of this even if she was on their side. The fact that Quirrell, Lockhart, Lupin, Dumbledore, and even Ron's former pet rat Scabbers had all been hiding major secrets and weren't exactly who they were supposed to be also gave credibility to that.

"I'll keep an eye on her." Susan promised.

"Just make sure that you don't give out anything we don't want publicly known, particularly about me." Tonks cautioned her.

"Do you really think Dumbledore would use Ariana as a spy?" Susan asked.

"I honestly wouldn't be surprised by anything Dumbledore does at this point." Tonks replied cynically, "I'm sure I'm just being paranoid and she seems okay, but we should still be cautious as we should around anyone."

At that moment, Ariana came back in, which caused them to end that particular conversation.

"So what did Dumbledore say?" Susan asked her.

"He said no..." Ariana replied morosely.

"Why not?" Susan asked.

"He wouldn't say, just that he didn't want me to go." She answered.

"Who is he to say you can't go?" Su asked angrily.

"Well he is the Headmaster," Fleur reminded them all, "a really bad one, but the Headmaster nonetheless."

"No, don't say that, he just wants me to be safe that's all." Ariana argued.

"I still don't understand why you like Dumbledore so much," Gabrielle asked.

"He's the greatest wizard that ever lived, that's why." Ariana replied, "Just think of all the things he's accomplished."

"I'm not saying that Dumbledore hasn't accomplished a lot, but he still definitely has some major faults." Gabrielle answered.

"Why did you need his permission anyway? Surely you must have a family member or a guardian who can sign that?" Fleur asked.

"Actually no, since he's now my magical guardian, and I don't have any other living family." Ariana told them.

"Right, because Dumbledore does such a great job as a magical guardian." Harry scoffed sarcastically. It would have been funny had it not been so sad at the same time.

"What do you mean?" Ariana asked.

"Dumbledore was once my magical guardian too, and the first thing he did was put me with my Muggle relatives who proceeded to beat me. Never once did Dumbledore bother to check up on me himself, didn't even bother to talk to them first to make sure I was safe, and simply left me on their doorstep with a letter. Instead he sent a former criminal who I never met during my entire stay there and always told Dumbledore that I was perfectly fine." Harry admitted.

"I don't see why he would ever do that." Ariana asked in shock.

"Believe me, there are a lot of things about Dumbledore that he would like us not to know, and plenty more that we still don't know." Harry answered.

"I'm sorry, but I just can't believe anything bad about him." Ariana said.

"Suit yourself, we won't force you to listen, but I'm still kind of disappointed that you aren't able to go to Hogsmeade with us." Susan told her.

"I am too, but what am I going to do if he says no?" Ariana asked.

"You could always simply slip out one of the school's secret passageways." Su suggested, "You still have that map Harry?"

"I sure do, and my invisibility cloak if you need to use that." Harry replied.

"I don't think I've ever done anything like that before." Ariana confessed.

"Well then now is your chance to!" Su exclaimed brightly. Her sense of adventure and danger was already burning hot again.

Ariana seemed really nervous but finally said, "Alright, I'm in!"

Later that night Susan had finally decided that she needed to tell Harry about her and Ariana. She felt that he wouldn't really mind, in fact she knew he had had a few fantasies involving two of the girls kissing each other, but she thought that at least he should know since she was still in a relationship with him.

Finding him in his bedroom alone, she said, "Harry, can I talk to you about something?"

"Sure, what's up?" He asked, patting the side of his bed for her to sit down next to him.

"I'm hoping that it won't be a problem for you and I really don't think it won't, but I feel at least you should know." Susan told him.

"Okay." He said simply.

"I've kind of, sort of, been doing stuff with Ariana. Nothing serious, just kissing at this point, but I thought I'd like to do a bit of exploring and see just how I feel about other girls." Susan answered.

Harry blushed but finally said, "Well I guess that would be fine with me, and I can see why you might want to do a bit of exploring. Personally I would never want to try anything with another guy, but if you want to find out yourself then that's okay with me."

"You're not upset? After all I am still with you, and you should know that I always will be." Susan told him.

"I get it, it's kind of hard sharing me all the time with 5 other girls and while I don't think I would be okay with you doing anything with other guys, I wouldn't really mind other girls so long as I always come first in your heart, as your fiance and then husband." Harry replied, worried his slightly possessive tendencies weren't going to cause problems.

"Thanks for understanding, Harry." Susan said gratefully, leaning in and kissing him, "You should know that you'll always come first in my eyes. I love you more than anyone and that is never going to change, I promise."

Harry nodded and Susan felt better.

"So..." Harry asked, "I don't suppose you'd let me watch sometime."

She smiled and said, "Maybe if you're really good, I'll let you."

DUELDUELDUEL

A few days later and Harry was giving Pansy one of his by now famous full body massages on her bed much to her satisfaction.

It was then that Ariana came in and noticed them there.

She came up to them and asked, "Can I watch while you show me how you do that?"

Harry could tell that Ariana was rather curious, but he had a suspicion just why she would want to know how to give massages like this. It didn't bother him, but he wasn't about to say yes since Pansy had said no to her dating him.

Surprisingly however, Pansy said, "I don't mind if you want to watch."

It suddenly occurred to Harry that Pansy actually liked the attention she received from the other girls when they watched her get some sexy time with him. It was sort of like bragging as if to say, "I'm sexy and I'll bet you wish you were me right now since I have Harry's attention right now.

For someone who sometimes had a low opinion of just how attractive she was, this would be considered invaluable to her, and having another girl watch her and possibly be jealous was something that she simply couldn't resist.

He really couldn't blame Pansy for this, and he also didn't mind agreeing with her as it gave an opportunity to brag about Pansy's body to someone else, something he enjoyed, and so would Pansy.

"I don't have a problem with that either." Harry agreed as he began to explain what he was doing, "I like to start with the feet and then move my way up. Now some girls can have rather ugly feet, but Pansy has dainty, cute little feet so you want to be careful not to hurt them as they are truly works of art."

"I'm not a porcelain vase Harry." Pansy reminded him, although pleased nonetheless.

He massaged her feet for a bit, working in each individual toe before moving on.

"Now Pansy's legs require just as much attention. As you can tell, they are finely shaped, and Pansy has to be very careful when they aren't covered in class since inevitably guys end up staring at them and forgetting to do their work. More than one detention or loss of House Points have been caused by Pansy's legs."

"You liar Harry, that's never happened," Pansy claimed.

"On the contrary, I lost Points just last week for doing that." Harry claimed, causing her to blush.

After massaging her legs for awhile, he moved up to one of his favorite Pansy parts: her bum.

"It can be very hard to resist simply immediately starting on her bum." Harry told Ariana, "I guarantee you while it is very nice, it is also quite firm."

"Are you going to be complimenting all of my body parts?" Pansy asked.

"I sure am." Harry said, grinning.

He spent some time on her bum, because he rather enjoyed it and also because Pansy did as well.

While not as big or as firm as some of the other girls, it still ranked extremely high on the list of best bums in Hogwarts in his opinion, and he still couldn't get enough of staring at it, which Pansy milked by 'accidentally' dropping something in front of him frequently that she had stoop down and pick up.

Moving up to her back and neck before turning her around and getting her front, he started explaining again, "I usually like to start with the top first and end with her favorite spot."

He slowly massaged her face while he said, "Now Pansy's face I could go on about all day. She has beautiful eyes, beautiful cheeks, and perfect lips; perfect because they are perfect to kiss."

To prove this, he leaned in and kissed her.

After that, he moved down to her breasts.

"Now as you can see, Pansy has a very nice set of breasts." Harry began.

"Don't you start." Pansy replied even though she was blushing, "All the girls except Su have a nicer, bigger pair than I do."

"I wasn't talking about theirs, I was talking about yours." Harry gently reminded her, having long ago learned not to compare each of the girls with each other as it only meant trouble.

"What about mine? Are mine nice?" Ariana asked as she thrust out her chest.

He wasn't about to answer that question himself so Pansy said, "Sure they look nice, do you mind telling me what size?"

"I think I'm like a 30C." Ariana answered.

"That's a decent size," Pansy admitted, "nothing to scoff at at least for your age."

Ariana blushed and said, "Thanks, I hope they get really huge like Susan's."

"I'm not sure you would have the genetics for that, Susan has some really busty women apparently in her family, would you know how big the women in your family were?" Pansy asked.

Ariana said, "I'm not really sure but I don't think they were huge."

"Then probably not but if you want to have them enlarged when you get older you can, I'm probably going to do the same thing myself." Pansy confessed.

"Why though? Yours are so beautiful already." Ariana asked.

"Thanks." Pansy replied, accepting the compliment.

Harry took this as a sign to continue as he slowly massaged her breasts, carefully stimulating each nipple, which were already hard from his ministrations.

She let out a small gasp as he popped one of her nipples into his mouth and slowly began to suck on it, before turning to the other.

After finishing with her breasts, he moved to her belly, and then ended with her favorite part, where he fingered her. It had taken awhile to finally get the hang of this part, but it was turning out to be well worth it based on the girl's reactions.

He knew she had at least one orgasm before she asked him to stop.

"Okay Harry, that's enough or I won't have time to have my hair brushed." Pansy claimed.

"I can do that as well." He offered.

"Actually I was wondering if Ariana would like to do it for me." Pansy replied.

"Oh, well okay then." Harry answered, "I suppose I'll go work on my homework then."

DUELDUELDUEL

After Harry left the room, Pansy was left alone with Ariana.

She really liked having her hair brushed, but really she wanted to talk to Ariana alone.

As Ariana slowly brushed out her hair, Pansy said, "I just want to say that I'm sorry about the other day and how I said I didn't want you dating Harry."

"It's all right, Susan helped me understand, no apology necessary." Ariana answered.

"Well I'm apologizing anyway, I think you're a great girl Ariana and I really hope you find happiness with someone." Pansy replied.

"Thanks." Ariana answered.

"To be honest you remind me a lot of myself, trying to be a good person, yet sullied by a dark and sad past." Pansy claimed.

"I often feel that way, but I'm not really sure just where it comes from." Ariana confessed, "I just feel like a part of me, which comes out particularly when I'm using magic is just so sad and I worry that I might lose control and hurt others or end up a monster."

"I know what you mean, you have no idea what kind of anguish I went through before I met Harry..." Pansy replied, "At any rate, I'd be happy to help you with yours and try to be your friend."

"Absolutely." Ariana replied, smiling.

Author's Note: First of all, just a little bit of sexual experimentation there, not a lot in case any of you have a problem with that and intend to object to it. I can see why Ariana would want to at least experiment a little though.


	37. Will the Real Ariana Please Stand Up?

Chapter 37

Will The Real Ariana Please Stand Up?

A week later Dumbledore was feeling a bit more happy with Ariana.

There had been no more questioning of him or what she was supposed to do, and seemed to finally just accept everything that he told her.

While he still had some misgivings and he would definitely be making some improvements to future clones, at least for now he wasn't going to get rid of her or replace her and he was willing to go forward with more clones, starting with Barty Crouch Sr. and Lily Evans.

Ariana had highlighted some major problems for him, some of which would be resolved by using clones with real memories from their originals. Problems with lacking information that he had been unable to supply for her such as about sex or relationships would no longer be problems since each new clone would have memories of that.

What he did need however was a way to force them never to question him and simply do whatever he asked without question. He had hoped that all of his clones would simply follow him because they would all naturally come to the conclusion that he knew what was best for them, but he finally had to admit that this was just not plausible.

While he would have preferred not to use it, as it could be dangerous and cause the loss of a few clones before he got it quite right, there was already an existing plan to remove any of their free agency and be programmed to follow his instructions perfectly.

First however he needed to bring back Lily as Snape was starting to get antsy and request that she be brought back now that Ariana appeared to be stable.

He had agreed to do it, under the condition that Snape keep her locked up inside a secret bunker that had been built during World War II but was modified to serve their purposes.

Obviously he couldn't have anyone finding out about her or her escaping.

Lily was quite different from Ariana in that she had died recently enough and whose picture was still seen in public so that someone might actually recognize her. She would also have memories of her original self and would almost certainly want to see her son Harry.

He had however extracted from Snape an unbreakable vow that he would never release her unless he himself gave express permission to do so.

Of course he had had to do some major manipulating in order to convince him, but it had all been worth it in his opinion. Snape had been told she would only have to be there a year and by then he would likely get rid of both him and clone Lily as neither would serve any other purpose.

Ariana, as long as she remained faithful, he would keep around, unless she needed to be replaced by a more faithful version of her.

As long as he kept her away from his brother Aberforth, now living in Hogsmeade, and the only person alive who would even recognize her, she would likely never even come close to finding out the truth.

DUELDUELDUEL

"Are you ready?" Harry asked.

"Ready!" Ariana answered as she slung the invisibility cloak over her shoulder.

They were just about to leave for Hogsmeade and Susan and Ariana were currently getting ready to sneak out underneath the secret tunnel to it.

"We'll see you on the other side then I guess." Tonks told them both.

"Probably a bit later, we were planning on checking out some of the shops first." Susan answered.

"See you later then." Harry said.

They both slipped on the invisibility cloak and disappeared, leaving Harry and the remaining girls to head out themselves. With permission forms still in hand, they went over to the front gate where Filch was dutifully studying each one before letting them through.

"I don't see why he has to scrutinize each one every time like this." Fleur commented.

"I think he just gets some some sort of high off thinking he'll find a forgery and Dumbledore will have them hung by their thumbs again in the dungeons." Tonks admitted, "He's been doing this for as long as I can remember and he still has yet to find a real forgery, although he thinks he has a few times."

Stepping forward Filch scanned each of theirs before letting most of them through.

However, he stopped Gabrielle and said, "I'm sorry little missy but yours is a forgery, you'll have to come with me."

"My permission slip is most certainly not forged!" Gabrielle argued.

"We even have the same parent sign ours and you let me through!" Fleur insisted.

Filch looked at her nastily and said, "You're right, I'd better take you in as well."

Personally Harry thought that Filch was just a pervy man wanting an excuse to be alone with two attractive young Veela, but he wasn't about to say that to him, not yet at least.

"What seems to be the trouble here Filch?" Madame Maxime said, coming up behind them and instantly casting a large shadow over Harry.

"Madame Maxime, these students clearly have forged documents." Filch argued.

Madame Maxime looked over at both of their permission slips and said dismissively, "These aren't forgeries Filch, I even looked their father's signature over myself back when they were going to my school."

"Be that as it may, Hogwarts is significantly better at catching criminal and illegal behavior than Beauxbatons." Filch replied.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Madame Maxime asked angrily.

Filch looked prepared to argue, but then she got right up in front of him as she stared menacingly down at him. Since Filch was only half as tall as she was, and not nearly as big, he actually cowered in obvious fear and discomfort.

"Nothing." Filch gave an ugly squeak.

"Good, now I think I'll go with these students so we can be underway to Hogsmeade." She told him.

Filch was still too scared to argue, and they all gladly followed Madame Maxime as she walked with them. Once they were away from Filch, they gladly thanked her.

"Not a problem." She replied, "Happy to help, although I have to confess I was a little worried that Filch might object. It seems a lot of people are questioning me and my ability to run my school."

"That's ridiculous, you're probably the best Headmistress Beauxbatons has ever had." Fleur argued.

"Thank you, but I'm afraid some people might not see it that way. I had a tough enough time as it was even getting this job but it seems this tournament has just made it even worse. I fear that unless things get better I might be fired." Madame Maxime confessed.

"We can't allow that to happen," Gabrielle stated, "if you were to find the culprit responsible for the cheating do you think that would help?"

"Of course, but nobody seems to know anything and examination of the Triwizard cup has proved fruitless." She confessed.

"Then we'll just have to find them for you." Fleur insisted.

"I wish you wouldn't, this is a matter that I need to solve." Madame Maxime said.

They agreed since they realized she would never allow them to be put into danger, but as soon as they left her in Hogsmeade, they all agreed they would definitely be stepping it up and finding the culprit for her.

DUELDUELDUEL

Meanwhile Ariana and Susan were walking down the secret tunnel into Hogsmeade.

"I really should feel guilty about doing this." Ariana confessed as they walked.

"You know you don't have to do this if you don't want to, we can just stay behind and do something else." Susan suggested.

"I know, but its also kind of exciting to be a bit rebellious, I don't think I've ever really done anything bad before." Ariana replied.

"We aren't really doing anything bad, just what Dumbledore should have let you do in the first place." Susan pointed out.

Ariana drew a deep breath as she would now be doing something even more against Dumbledore's wishes as she confessed, "Susan, I think you should probably know something, Dumbledore is more than my magical guardian, he's my great-grandfather."

At this, Susan actually stopped and turned around. "Are you serious?" She asked in complete shock.

"I just felt like you deserved to know." Ariana replied.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Susan asked.

"Would you if you were me?" Ariana questioned.

Susan thought about this a moment then confessed, "No, I don't suppose I would."

"It's been so hard for me not to tell any of you." Ariana said.

Susan drew her into a hug and said, "It's okay, I'm not going to judge you because of who your family is, you couldn't have helped that. In truth even my own family has some links with some not so good individuals and I'm not the only one. You should see Pansy's family tree for instance, trust me, she's the nicest one in her family by far."

"Thanks for understanding." Ariana replied, now smiling.

She really did like Susan, and was a great friend, girlfriend, or whatever she was by now and it felt really good to admit that at least to her. Her answer had certainly helped her make a decision that she would never do as her grandfather had asked and spy on her, she just couldn't ever bring herself to do it. That would be something that she told her later though not wanting to try her luck and risk how Susan might react to that news as well. She wanted to handle it delicately as Susan would definitely be mad at her grandfather for it, and while she may not have agreed with some of the things he did, she still loved him and didn't want to risk hurting him.

At any rate they had resumed walking and finally reached the end of the passageway.

"It leads up to the cellar in Honeydukes." Susan said, "I thought maybe we might get some candy and then go get a Butterbeer."

"Okay!" Ariana replied.

After sneaking out through the cellar and emerging inside of the store, they picked out some candy to buy which Susan offered to pay for while Ariana remained underneath the invisibility cloak.

Candy was something that Ariana knew quite a lot about, and it surprised her that she recognized every single type of candy in the entire store and remembered trying.

It confused her because the candy in the United States should be different, but even the weirder flavors, such as cockroach cluster, she recognized.

She even knew how to make it, which she tried to tell Susan about but she simply made a face and asked her not to tell her.

Still Susan was visibly impressed by her candy knowledge as she continued on whispering about other candy.

"How do you know so much about candy?" She asked.

"I guess I must be Willy Wonka." Ariana said grinning.

Susan looked puzzled so she had to explain just who Willy Wonka was and then the entire movie.

"I remember watching that with Dumbledore like a dozen times." Ariana confessed.

"I can see why he would like it even if it is a Muggle film," Susan replied, "A movie in a candy factory with children being horribly punished for not listening to an insane man who makes candy."

"Hey!" Ariana protested, "He's still my grandfather and I still enjoyed watching it."

"Sorry, I'll try to be nicer now that I know but I couldn't resist making the comparison." Susan confided.

"Well I suppose he is a bit like Willy Wonka, although older." Ariana confessed.

Susan laughed at that, and then they finished picking out candy.

After paying for it, they headed off to the Three Broomsticks. Yet when they got inside, they could already tell that the place was packed and looking over at one of the tables, they could see Professor McGonagall sitting at a table.

"I don't think this is a good idea," Ariana whispered to her, "too likely to get bumped into under this Cloak or be discovered by a teacher."

"Good point," Susan whispered back as they headed back outside, "how about we go to the Hog's Head instead? They serve Butterbeer there too, and I think it is actually less expensive even though less popular."

They headed over there and went inside.

Unlike the Three Broomsticks, barely anyone was inside: less than half a dozen patrons all wearing cloaks, hoods, or things that obscured their faces.

Apparently it was a fashion statement here.

The only exception to this was Hagrid, currently sitting at the bar so they figured it wasn't too dangerous of a place as long as he was there.

"Hello Hagrid." Susan said, going up to stand by him.

"Hello Susan," Hagrid answered, "I really can't thank you enough for that date idea you gave me. Olympe absolutely loved it."

Ariana remembered that Olympe was actually Madame Maxime and Hagrid's current girlfriend, who were evidently doing rather well together.

"I'm actually supposed to meet up with her later today." Hagrid confessed.

"That's great, but you might want to lay off the alcohol then if you've got a date." Susan pointed out.

"It's only Butterbeer." Hagrid assured her, lifting his glass to show her, "Actually if you're going to get something here, you'll want your own glass. I've got an extra one here if you'd like it."

"That would be great Hagrid." Susan replied gratefully.

Hagrid reached into his coat pocket and pulled one out before putting it on the counter, a huge Hagrid sized mug.

After waiting for the barman to come over, she said, "Can I get a Butterbeer please?"

The barman looked down at the huge mug and then said, "I'll have to charge you for two if you are going to use a mug that big."

"That's fine." Susan agreed.

She guessed that this really was okay since Susan would likely be sharing with her.

After taking a long drink, she surreptitiously put the mug underneath her invisibility cloak so that she could have a drink.

As she drank, Susan continued to talk to Hagrid, who failed to notice that she no longer had his mug.

While she listened absently about how his last date with Madame Maxime had went, she looked around the bar.

The three black cloaked gentleman in the corner were currently playing a poker game, and what appeared to be a hag sat at a table all by herself reading a book that made the occasional small scream.

With the only other occupants being Susan, Hagrid, herself, and the barman, she looked over at the wall behind the counter.

In addition to a fading copy of an Award for Best Service that was 60 years out of date, she spotted a few old photos and as she turned to look at one, she actually dropped her mug in shock.

It was a picture of her!

Not just a girl that looked like her, but looked exactly like her, the eyes, the hair, the nose, the chin, it was all there.

At first she thought that perhaps the owner of the bar was just a pervert in somehow getting her photo and keeping it, but the photo was way too old for that, it even had a date at the bottom: summer of 1899, way before she was ever even born.

Then why did the girl look exactly like her?

Susan, however, was unaware of her still staring at the picture as she was still underneath the invisibility cloak and so couldn't actually see her face.

She dropped down onto the floor to pick up the mug and the spilled Butterbeer.

"Did you just drop it?" Susan whispered quietly so Hagrid wouldn't hear.

"Look at the picture behind the counter!" Ariana whispered.

After picking up the mug, Susan looked over at the picture herself, and her own mouth dropped open in shock, no doubt going through the same process that she did.

"Excuse me, who's that picture of?" Susan asked the barman as she pointed at it.

The barman's face immediately took on a look of deep sadness as he gruffly said, "It's no one that concerns you."

"Please." Susan pleaded.

Finally the barman replied, probably hoping it would satisfy her curiosity, "It was my sister Ariana."

"Was?" Susan queried.

"She died not long after that photo was taken." the barman replied.

"Would you happen to have any more photos of her?" Susan asked.

"Why all the questions about my sister?" the barman countered back.

He obviously didn't appear happy talking about her and normally Ariana would have told Susan to back off, but she wanted to know just as much as she did.

"I just think it might be very important, if I could maybe just see some more photos perhaps..." Susan replied.

Like her, she just felt like knowing more about the girl in the photo was important.

The barman appeared reluctant, but finally said, "I don't have any other photos with me, but if I show you a portrait of her, will you leave me alone?"

"I will, thank you so much." Susan replied.

"Come back with me." The barman offered.

Susan stepped back behind the counter as she followed invisibly herself.

Stepping into another room, she immediately saw a portrait of the girl, still looking exactly the same as her.

"Now you've seen it," the barman said, "now I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

Ariana simply couldn't allow that happen, she simply had to find out more about the girl.

Pulling off her invisibility cloak, she appeared right in front of him.

As the barman saw her appear, a look of complete shock appeared upon his face.

"Ariana? It's not possible!" The barman asked in total and complete shock. As soon as he said this, he fainted, falling onto the floor.

Susan rushed over to see if he was okay as he came to.

"Are you okay?" Susan asked him.

"Sorry, I just thought I saw something that I really shouldn't have seen." The barman replied.

Yet as he looked over at her again, he nearly fainted again. "How are you here?" He asked, now as white as a sheet.

"I'm not your dead sister if that is what you're wondering," Ariana replied, "but I'd still like to know just how you know my name?"

"Not my sister?" The barman asked in consternation, "You look just like her though."

"That's what we've been trying to figure out as well." Susan told him, "We were wondering if you might be able to help us with that."

"If you aren't my sister, then who are you?" The barman asked.

The barman simply could not stop staring at her.

"I'm Ariana Taylor, and who might you be?" She questioned.

"I'm Aberforth Dumbledore, Ariana Dumbledore was my sister." Aberforth replied.

"Any relation to Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts?" Susan asked.

"Yes, he's my brother." Aberforth responded.

"He's actually my great grandfather, but the thing is he never even mentioned he had a brother, much less a sister who looked just like me." Ariana told him.

Personally she was very confused just why he had never told her.

"That would be like him I suppose, but he never even mentioned he had a child, much less a great grandchild. He always told me that he was totally celibate his entire life." Aberforth commented.

"Well I know that can't be true since he had sex with a Muggle woman and had my grandmother." Ariana said, "I'm still confused just why I look just like your sister and even have the same name."

Aberforth paused to think for a moment then said, "I guess it's more likely since at least you and her are somewhat related, but it's still hard to believe that you would look exactly alike like each other, even around 100 years apart."

"Tell me about her." Ariana urged.

The look of deep sadness returned to him as he began to relate to them his memories of her.

"She was born about a year later than me, and was quite a precious and smart child. Even at a young age she was turning out to be very gifted with magic, something that our parents were particularly pleased with since their older child Albus had been the same way and was already off to a great start at Hogwarts. One day while she was 6, however, some of the Muggle boys living in the neighborhood caught her doing magic and so they attacked her for being what they considered to be a freak. The attack left her traumatized and caused her to lose control of both her mind and her magic."

For some reason this story rang true for her, feeling almost like she had lived it, the fear, the loss of control, it felt so very much a part of her whenever she did magic in front of others.

"My father on the other hand got angry." Aberforth continued, "He ended up cursing the Muggle boys in retaliation and for that was sent to Azkaban since he wouldn't tell why he had done it, the reason being that in the state my sister was in if the severity of her condition was widely known she would be sent to St. Mungo's and neither of my parents could bear to have that happen. Ultimately we ended up caring for her ourselves and hid her from the rest of the world. Despite her condition she was still a nice girl, and when she was calm I used to let her help me feed the goats. Unfortunately when I went off to school was when the problems started since I was the only one who could calm her down when she was having her fits and one day there was an accident when she couldn't control herself and my mother was killed."

A wave of sadness immediately hit her. She didn't know Aberforth's mother, but she still felt like she did, and still somehow felt somewhat responsible for her death.

At this even Aberforth was crying as he continued with the story.

"After the death of my mother, I prayed for a miracle. I couldn't be mad at her for the death of my mother as she had had no control but I still felt responsible for her. I decided to drop out of school to take care of her, but Albus wouldn't hear of it. He wanted to finally put her in St. Mungo's since he felt that she was a danger to society. Personally I also think he just didn't want to have care for her himself. By that point he had graduated from Hogwarts and could have stayed at home to look after her. Yet as I prayed for a miracle, I actually got one. One day I awoke and went into Ariana's bedroom to check up on her and found a beautiful phoenix there in her bedroom."

"At first I was afraid for her, but then I saw Ariana smiling as she petted the bird, I had never actually seen my sister smile ever since the incident and so I stopped to simply watch the display."

"She began actually talking to the bird and bird seemed like it was responding to her. Eventually I realized that above all odds, the phoenix had decided to bond itself as her familiar."

"It was an unprecedented occurrence since phoenixes are extremely rare to begin with and even more rare to bond with a human. The fact that for whatever reason this phoenix had found and chosen my sister was truly a miracle. Ariana called the phoenix Fawkes."

"That's the name of Dumbledore's phoenix!" Susan exclaimed.

"The very same phoenix." Aberforth admitted.

"I knew that he had a phoenix but he's never let me see it." Ariana claimed.

In truth simply mentioning Fawkes the phoenix stirred something with her, a sort of calm peacefulness.

"I'm sad that he has been that way to you due to the value Fawkes was to my sister." Aberforth replied, "Fawkes was able to do for my sister what no one else could have as she began to slowly but steadily recover from both her mental and magical illnesses as Fawkes began to cure her of it. She smiled and was happier a lot more, her magical fits began to get weaker and weaker and all that was needed to end them was a song sung by Fawkes. For the first time I had high hopes that she would make a full recovery given time."

"Unfortunately Albus learned of the phoenix as well and I was able to persuade him that you were recuperating on your own. He ultimately decided to stay at Godric's Hollow where we lived and look after you. The problem however was that Gellert Grindelwald, at that time merely a teenager at that time and around the same age as Albus ended up coming to stay there as well. Both quickly became friends and hatched a plan to take over the world and improve society with wizards as rulers over muggles."

"Grandfather would never do something like that though." Ariana argued.

"You can choose to believe me or not, but it's still the truth and I would be willing to still say it over oath." Aberforth claimed, "I don't know what his views are now, but at that time that was his plan. At any rate, before they did so they sought for power over death, something people throughout time and searched for and ultimately failed to find."

"At that time however, Dumbledore was still thinking about Ariana's phoenix. The phoenix was the only known creature on the planet known to have complete power over death. Nothing could seem to kill one since it would always be reborn. In addition it had incredible healing powers, powers that he was already witnessing firsthand with my sister, could carry heavy loads, and could even travel possibly anywhere in the world by flame travel. Dumbledore decided that if he was to obtain power over death he needed Fawkes for it, and since Fawkes seemed only willing to listen to Ariana, he needed her as well."

"They tried taking her and Fawkes with them on their planned journey, but I told them no, that not only was Ariana still not stable enough to travel but she would never help them fulfill such an evil goal. Grindelwald was angry with me, and so used the Cruciatus curse on me. Albus rushed to my defense and a duel between them ensued. In the confusion, a stray spell hit Ariana that ended up killing her. We still aren't sure just who actually fired the spell, but I still blame Albus for it, since whether or not he did it, he still is responsible for trying to abuse her like that in the first place for his own evil ambitions."

"After that, Albus and Grindelwald had a falling out, and Grindelwald started out on his plans for world domination without him, going quite far until he and Albus' famous duel where he was defeated."

Once he had finished his story, Ariana simply let the whole tale sink in.

She didn't want to believe it, but it just felt so true to her, almost like she had lived it herself, which she found very unsettling, since this Ariana looked and felt so much like herself it was uncanny. If there wasn't such a huge age difference, she might have believed that she really was the original Ariana.

"How come Fawkes chose to follow Albus after Ariana's death then?" Susan asked.

"To be honest I'm not sure and something I've always been highly suspicious." Aberforth admitted, "Fawkes loved Ariana but he certainly had no love for Albus, he used to screech and squawk angrily whenever he was around. Usually a phoenix only bonds with a truly good person which was certainly not what Albus was at that time. I remember Fawkes was there for Ariana's funeral but then I didn't speak to Albus for many years after that so I don't really know what happened. All I know is when I next saw him again he had Fawkes. Personally I think he must have done something to it or tricked it somehow, Fawkes would never have chosen him after losing Ariana like that."

"It does sound very suspicious and horrible if it's true." Susan agreed.

"I think I've already got a lot to think about already." Ariana admitted.

"I'm sure you do, and I'd be more than happy to help you figure them out." Aberforth volunteered.

"Thank you, this is already just so much for me to take in right now." Ariana replied as she went and gave him a hug.

He returned the hug as tears still went down his cheeks, before staring at her again.

"You know, you really do look and sound just like her." Aberforth told her.

"The thing is, I feel almost like I am her." Ariana confessed.

DUELDUELDUEL

Author's Note: Ariana finally learns about her original self, meets Aberforth, and finds out some of the truth about Dumbledore, so huge event for her there. As promised by some reviewers who asked about Fawkes, this is the beginning to the answer just why Dumbledore has him. Sorry if it took awhile to get to it, but I wasn't about to spoil it for you. Lastly it will take awhile for Ariana to figure out the truth about herself being a clone, but figure it out she will and when she does, Dumbledore will be in serious trouble.

Please review!


	38. What's up with Fawkes?

Chapter 38

What's up with Fawkes?

After talking a bit more with Aberforth, Ariana and Susan decided to head back and as soon as they were safely back inside the tunnel so they could talk privately, Susan asked, "Can you believe all that? About Aberforth and Albus Dumbledore and then their sister?"

Ariana still felt like she was in a daze as she answered, "I know, it seems all so crazy and yet it feels so true, almost like I actually lived many of those events that Aberforth was describing. In truth even he seems somehow vaguely familiar."

"Do you think its just because he's family or because that girl Ariana looked so much like you?" Susan then asked.

"I think it's more than that, do you think it's possible that I actually am her?" Ariana asked.

"I don't see how that would be possible." Susan replied, "First of all she lived 100 years ago and Aberforth said she died. He was even there to see her die and he really didn't have any reason to lie. Second of all, you've already got a lifetime's worth of memories that she certainly wouldn't have had."

"I suppose you're right, but why do I feel such a strong connection to her then?" Ariana questioned.

"I'm not sure, but maybe it means something else, like you are supposed to learn something about her or something." Susan suggested.

"Maybe..." Ariana agreed reluctantly.

As they started down the tunnel again, she was still lost in thought as she thought about all that she had learned. The only conclusion she could come to however was that her great-grandfather Dumbledore had definitely been lying to her.

"Susan?" Ariana asked.

"Yes." She replied.

"Why do you think Dumbledore lied to me? He never told me about either of his siblings." Ariana asked.

Susan seemed to ponder this for a second and then said, "I'm not really sure, I may not like Dumbledore but he always has a reason, even if it is totally wrong or stupid."

Normally Ariana might have felt some resentment towards her for badmouthing her grandfather, but not right now, not when she was finally forced to admit that Susan might actually be somewhat correct. She wanted to believe that he had a really good reason, but she had absolutely no idea just what that reason could be.

"I really do want to believe he was only trying to look out for me, but I just don't see how." Ariana confessed.

"Personally I think he was being an idiot and whatever he did was highly suspicious, but I also know that he is your grandfather. This is something you need to work out but just how you do that is up to you." Susan replied.

"I'm going to go see him right now." Ariana insisted, "I have to find out."

"He may not be very forthcoming." Susan argued.

"I'm hopeful that he'll at least tell me. He loves me." Ariana said. While she still had learned plenty about him, she felt he still deserved a chance to try and explain himself.

Susan relented and said, "If that is what you think you should do, then go for it."

As soon as they got out of the tunnel, she headed immediately for the Headmaster's Office to talk to him.

She felt an undeniable feeling that she shouldn't go, but she shrugged that feeling off. He was her grandfather, he would never put her in any danger.

Yet as she got to the entrance, the huge statue blocking the way failed to move when she gave the password, meaning that he wasn't there or at least denying company.

Still, she didn't want to wait that long and decided to get inside anyway. If he had only just stepped out for a few minutes then she would wait for him. While she had never been in his office without him being present, she found the enchantments he'd placed on the statue easily enough, which she removed in order to allow the stairs open up.

After doing so, she knew there were a few more security spells he had placed, but she removed those as well.

It surprised her that she actually knew all of those spells and how to break through them, but she was still grateful that she did.

Finally she managed to get inside the office which was vacant.

She was just about to decide how long she should try and wait for him, when she spotted Dumbledore's phoenix Fawkes.

Having never actually seen Fawkes before, she was in awe of just how beautiful he was. He, like Aberforth, seemed vaguely familiar even if there didn't seem to be any reason for it.

Still, she remembered what Aberforth had said about him, that he had once been Dumbledore's sister Ariana's until he had become Dumbledore's for some unknown reason.

She went over to him and said, "Hello Fawkes."

Fawkes stared back at her with curiosity on his face and she just couldn't resist putting her hand on his head.

Yet when she did a shock rushed through her body as an intense feeling of pain passed through her body, as well as recognition.

She felt like Fawkes vaguely recognized her as well, but wasn't able to really say why because of this intense pain he was feeling.

"What's hurting you Fawkes?" Ariana asked.

Then she put her hand back on his head and again felt that feeling of pain, yet as she kept her hand on him, she searched for the source. There appeared to be some sort of spell or something on him, although she really wasn't sure what. It was a magic even she did not know.

However she decided to do her best to try and solve the problem.

She had been taught how to do Legilimency and was really quite good at it, but she wasn't sure if it would work on animals.

Still she felt she had to try.

Fawkes made no move to try and stop her as she raised her wand at him and she sensed that if it had been anyone other than her he definitely would have had a problem with this, but something inside of him was allowing him to trust her.

"Legilimens." She shouted.

As she tried to get inside his mind, she realized that Fawkes' mind was different from a humans but still very intelligent.

However she encountered a block on him that was entirely human in origin.

She struggled to move past it, but it was incredibly complex and difficult, stronger than she would have believed possible even for a human which meant it could only have been done by Dumbledore himself.

It was an incredibly tasking experience to break through, but she still kept working at it until finally she managed to break through.

Yet instead of finding a ton of memories, she found absolutely nothing, just a void amount of space.

While Fawkes was an animal, this should definitely not be the case, it was like Fawkes didn't even have any memories or any real conscious.

As she searched harder however, she came across yet another block, even stronger than the first one.

It took her probably several minutes of constantly struggling but she managed to break through that one as well but was not prepared for what she saw.

Images of her! Memories of her and Fawkes as she cried in pain and agony as Fawkes sang to her and calmed her down.

She realized however that they weren't actually memories of her but of the original Ariana, yet as they began to flood into her brain, they just felt so familiar; like she had lived them herself.

As she went through these memories, it seemed that that Ariana seemed to be gradually getting better. At first she seemed totally out of it like a completely insane person but slowly she seemed to be improving. She seemed happier and was even starting to go outside and play as well as have short conversations with a young Aberforth.

All of these memories were from Fawkes' point of view, but she could still feel that pain and agony that Ariana had gone through.

It seemed that she was getting better and even seemed somewhat normal until one day who could only be a young version of her great-grandfather as well as a young man about his same age only long blond hair entered Ariana's bedroom one day while she slept as Fawkes perched above her. Somehow she recognized the young man to be Grindelwald.

So far this whole experience of viewing memories had only reinforced what Aberforth had said about his brother to be true as much as she didn't want to believe it.

She struggled to make this memory stronger as she viewed it.

"Magnificent." Grindelwald said.

"Indeed," Dumbledore agreed, "we can use the phoenix to achieve our plans and with it we can finally do what none have ever accomplished before, conquer death."

"The world will be ours Dumbledore, ours to rule. It is our destiny to lead as the only ones capable of truly making the world what it needs to be." Grindelwald replied.

"Indeed." Dumbledore repeated. "The world needs us. Without us, they are like babies, constantly in need of care. Muggles will be our servants, led by those loyal only to us, all world leaders will be either killed or replaced, it is the only way... all for the Greater Good."

She winced as she heard that uttered by him as she had heard the older version of him utter so many times before only she had thought that it was a good thing, now after hearing it be spoken of world domination and making Muggles into servants for wizards, she knew she could never feel the same way about it again.

Dumbledore had more than lied to her, he was absolutely nothing like she had once thought. Aberforth had been right.

Perhaps he had changed a great deal since that time, but what she next learned, completely and permanently convinced her otherwise.

"We'll need my sister as well if we want to take the phoenix with us." Dumbledore informed Grindelwald.

"If we must, although I don't like taking an insane invalid." Grindelwald reluctantly agreed.

"I'm not sure if Fawkes will listen to us though, he only listens to Ariana." Dumbledore replied.

Even now she could tell that Fawkes was certainly unhappy as he looked at them as they stood at the doorway even as they watched Ariana sleep.

"We might need to somehow take control of the phoenix and force it to do what we want/" Grindelwald argued.

"I've already tried that," Dumbledore said, "his connection to Ariana is too strong. Only she controls it."

"What would we need to do to break it?" Grindelwald asked.

"Without killing her, nothing." Dumbledore said.

"If we have to, for the Greater Good if she won't cooperate, be willing to kill her?" Grindelwald asked.

Dumbledore paused for a long moment before slowly saying, "Yes. For the greater good, if need be, we will kill her."

"Let's take her with us and see if she cooperates first." Grindelwald said, evidently pleased that Dumbledore would be willing to kill his own sister for the cause.

Dumbledore walked inside of Ariana's bedroom and went over to her, only for Fawkes to immediately start squawking.

He ignored the bird and tried to shake her awake.

"Come on Ariana, it's time for us to go." He told her.

"Go where?" Aberforth asked as he walked inside the room past Grindelwald.

"We're taking Ariana with us." Dumbledore replied to him.

"You're not taking her anywhere. She isn't well enough to travel, nor should she have any part in your schemes." Aberforth answered.

Dumbledore looked entirely taken aback.

"You probably didn't even realize that I figured out what you two were up to. You thought you were so smart, whispering to each other thinking that your idiot brother couldn't hear. Your arrogance will be the death of you, mark my words Albus." Aberforth argued.

"How dare you speak to us like that!" Grindelwald yelled, "Crucio!"

Aberforth immediately fell onto the ground writhing in pain as he screamed.

Still Grindelwald kept his wand still pointed at him as he grinned maliciously.

Dumbledore made no move to stop it until he decided it was enough punishment.

"That's enough Grindelwald." Dumbledore replied.

"Oh I hardly think that's enough, did you hear what he just said?" Grindelwald asked.

"I said that's enough." Dumbledore answered, pulling out his own wand.

"Do you really intend to fight me?" Grindelwald asked, laughing.

In response, Dumbledore cast a spell at him, which Grindelwald dodged, simultaneously breaking the Cruciatus Curse he had on Aberforth.

There followed an intense but quick duel between Dumbledore and Aberforth against Grindelwald.

Finally however Ariana, seeing the fighting, tried to stop it by jumping into the fray.

"No Ariana, stay back!" Aberforth yelled.

At that moment, Grindelwald hit Aberforth with a spell that knocked him out.

Dumbledore took advantage of this by yelling, "Avada Kedavra!"

The spell was headed right for Grindelwald, but instead of dodge it, he pulled Ariana directly into its path.

It hit her, causing her to immediately collapse to the ground.

Dumbledore ran over to check her pulse, only to discover that there was none.

"She's dead!" Dumbledore declared.

"It was your spell that killed her." Grindelwald reminded him, "do not let her death be for nothing. We can still use her phoenix and achieve our plans."

Enraged, Dumbledore yelled, "I no longer want anything to do with you. Now get out of my sight before I kill you!"

Grindelwald looked upset but finally said, "I'll allow you time to cool off. In time, you'll see reason and I'll be ready to welcome you back when you do."

He Apparated out, leaving Dumbledore with the still unconscious Aberforth, and the body of Ariana. Fawkes swooped down as he began to sing a song of mourning at the loss of his master and friend.

Suddenly Dumbledore looked up at Fawkes and listened to his singing for a second before coldly pulling his wand and pointing it at the bird.

Fawkes managed to dodge the first couple spells he cast at him, but he got clipped by the third as Dumbledore relentlessly cast spells at him as the bird squawked in pain.

"I may not have Ariana anymore, but at least I have you and we'll accomplish my plans without Grindelwald, even if it takes me 100 years!" Dumbledore insisted.

She could sense that Fawkes was steadily weakening and losing consciousness, his thoughts of sadness at the loss of Ariana and his loyalty to her slowly disappearing as an empty void of consciousness filled his mind.

Suddenly there was darkness and then there was nothing more.

While she struggled to find more, that appeared to be all there was, no memories past this point other than the void she found inside his mind.

Finally she was forced to withdraw as she was already exhausted, at the point of fainting from the exertion of maintaining being inside his mind.

After getting out of it, she panted breathlessly as she thought about all that she had learned.

Her grandfather was a liar and the worst type of person she could ever imagine. He was a monster and it was fairly obvious he hadn't changed.

She couldn't tell just what kind of spell he was using on Fawkes, but she knew that he was still using him for evil purposes against his will.

It appeared everything she had thought about him was a lie and she could no longer deny that.

While she wanted to scream at him for what he had done, something told her that he would kill her just as he had agreed to kill the original Ariana to Grindelwald. He hadn't intended to kill her when he had, but it didn't matter, if he thought it was for the Greater Good, she knew that he would kill her as well.

Finally, she reactivated his security spells and ran down the stairs. While she had wanted to take Fawkes, he definitely would suspect something was up if she did. She would have to find a way to rescue Fawkes, but that time wasn't now.

Instead she ran straight to her room to find Susan.

When she found her, she wrapped her arms around her and hugged her tightly as she began to cry.

Susan only just hugged her back and allowed her to cry it out.

Finally after she had managed to regain her composure, she explained just what she had seen, while Susan listened intently without interruption.

"He's a monster!" Ariana said emphatically after she had finished.

"It's okay, plenty of other people, including me, have been fooled by him." Susan said, "The good news is you know the truth now."

"He's going to try to take over the earth somehow, I just know it." Ariana replied.

"I doubt he could ever manage it. He's only one man and while people respect him, I highly doubt they'd aid him in world conquest." Susan claimed.

"He'll do it somehow," Ariana answered, "if there is one thing I know about him, he never gives up when he sets his mind on something, even if it takes awhile."

They continued to talk until Ariana decided to admit something else to Susan.

"He sent me to spy on you, that's the only reason I'm even here at school." Ariana confessed.

"I can't believe it, he sent you to spy on us!" Susan exclaimed in alarm.

"That was before I got to know all of you. I promise I never actually gave him anything about you." Ariana answered.

"I'm grateful for your honesty, I suppose I should have known. We at least suspected you of being a spy." Susan declared.

"You did?" Ariana asked.

"You just seemed to stick out too much and there was a lot about you we really couldn't explain. I tried to give you the benefit of the doubt however." Susan said.

"You had every right to suspect me," Ariana claimed, "I'm so sorry..."

"It's okay," Susan answered, "to be honest we've actually been spying on him. We think he suspects but he just can't figure out how."

"He's told me the same." Ariana told her.

"You do realize I'm going to have to tell the others about this?" Susan reminded her.

Ariana sighed and said, "I know, but I also want to be there to tell them."

"I believe that can be arranged." Susan agreed.

When Harry and the other girls got back, Ariana and Susan explained to them all everything they had learned.

They were understandably shocked but thankfully none of them seemed to blame Ariana or get mad at her as they had feared.

"Well we've always known Dumbledore was a complete jerk, this only reinforces it." Su claimed.

"It also means that we have an even greater need to find out what he's up to." Tonks answered.

"Do you think that there might be a way that we can use anything to get him in trouble with the law somehow?" Gabrielle asked.

"Unfortunately not." Susan said, "I've already thought of that, but the thing is we don't have anything really concrete. We have no proof he tried to take over the world, him killing the original Ariana was first of all an accident and he and Grindelwald were the only eyewitnesses and I highly doubt his testimony would be believed considering Dumbledore was the one to put him in prison in the first place."

"What about Fawkes?" Pansy asked.

"I hate the idea of Fawkes being still under some spell against his will but I don't really know how to free him." Ariana responded, "No offense but it took me all of my strength and superior Legilimency skills to even break that deep into Fawkes' mind. Even if we were to somehow get a warrant to check Fawkes over, I guarantee you, Dumbledore would only tighten security on Fawkes' mind before we could. I'd likely never get in again."

"We've just got to get him on something." Tonks said, "I suppose it is really my fault, perhaps if I had worked harder at spying on him..."

"Wait a minute," Ariana asked, "you're the one spying on him?"

"I think Ariana deserves to hear it too." Susan told Tonks, "She's more than proved she's on our side now. Besides we could really use her. We really haven't gotten anywhere on our own and Ariana could be a big help."

Tonks paused for a moment and then reluctantly agreed. "Very well." She immediately changed into her original form, causing Ariana to jump back in surprise.

"I'm actually an Auror assigned to spy on Dumbledore." Tonks said.

After explaining, Ariana immediately offered to help.

"I'm already close to him, so maybe I could learn some things about him, while I feed him false information about all of you?" Ariana said.

"You could also feed him real information that we just don't care about so that he doesn't suspect anything." Tonks suggested.

"We'll catch him, don't you worry." Susan agreed.

"I'm taking him out before the end of the school year." Tonks claimed.

"Is that a goal?" Harry asked.

"That's a promise." Tonks promised.

DUELDUELDUEL

The next day Ariana went to go give information to Dumbledore while Susan explained to her Aunt Amelia what was going on using Harry's magic mirror.

Amelia listened intently to her every word, interjecting to ask a few questions until Susan had finished. "Are you sure that this Ariana can be trusted?" She finally asked.

"She swore an unbreakable vow after we explained everything to everyone, and I believe her to be totally genuine." Susan confessed.

"Then I'll just have to trust your judgment and hers." her Aunt said, "Let me know if you need anything."

"I will." Susan agreed, "What about you? Do you need anything? How is the pregnancy coming along?"

Her aunt had gotten pregnant several months ago. As it was her first pregnancy she hadn't been entirely sure what to expect but Narcissa had been there to help her with it and she had been sure that everything would be okay, that is until she had learned she would be having triplets.

Magical triplets were extremely rare, and it was said that it meant that they would be incredibly power.

However Amelia wasn't too happy that it had happened to her as she was already getting huge.

She joked however that she was merely catching up with Narcissa, who had once again gotten pregnant herself again not long after, fortunately with just one.

"It's fine, although I'm already starting to feel like a whale." Amelia commented, "Not that Sirius minds, he just can't get over how big are breasts have gotten and he's always wanted a big family, although I think this might be it for me. I'd probably have had only 1 otherwise."

"We're going to have a big family no matter what even if we did only have 1 or 2." Susan replied.

"I'd imagine so." her Aunt answered.

After chatting a bit as Amelia described what to expect while pregnant, Susan decided to bring up something else.

"There's something else you should probably know but you have to promise not to freak out." Susan admitted, somewhat nervously.

"What is it Susan? You know you can tell me anything," Amelia replied.

"Well there's something more about Ariana. Please don't get mad, but we've kind of been experimenting a bit together. I'm not really sure if I really do like girls or not, but I kind of want to find out. All we've done is kiss so far though." Susan confessed.

"Why would I be mad?" Amelia asked.

"I don't know, I just didn't want you to think badly of me for it." Susan answered.

"I could never think badly of you for that. You're still young and some experimentation isn't too surprising. I even did some of my own when I was your age." Amelia replied.

"You did?" Susan asked in shock.

"One of my friends and I kissed a few times, just to see if we liked it." Amelia said, "Yet just after that I started dating Sirius, so it never really progressed beyond that."

"Well Harry knows about it, and is okay with it in case you were worried about that, and I know that I'll always want to be with him." Susan said.

"I know. I've seen the way you look at each other." Amelia said, "However, if you or some of the other girls decide that you like each other too then that would be fine as well with me."

"I'm glad that you're always so understanding, I couldn't ask for a better aunt." Susan told her.

"I couldn't ask for a better niece." Amelia responded.

After finishing her talk with her, Susan handed the mirror over to Tonks so that she could give her own personal report.

She noticed Harry standing there and she said as seductively as possible, "You know, I think I deserve a little reward."

He grinned and said, "Exactly what reward did you have in mind?"

"I think you know," She replied.

They both hurried into his bedroom and they began undressing.

"Hold on I want to try something different," Susan suggested, "use legilimency on me."

He did so and she let him see just what she was thinking at that moment: Just how attractive she found him and just what she wanted him to do to her.

His strong lean muscles, his finely chiseled features that appeared to be carved from marble by the perfect sculptor, his bum, his huge cock that she still couldn't resist staring at, everything.

When it came to what she wanted him to do, she wanted her body ravished with his mouth, lips, and skilful tongue including her most intimate of places.

A rush of anticipation for it already entering her mind.

Following her mental instructions, he began kissing her lips, at first slowly and softly, and then raking his tongue along them in circles.

Finally he pushed his way in between her lips as he sought entrance inside of her mouth.

Opening it just enough, he slid in as he began to French kiss her, only faster and more forceful.

Her elation at the sensation shot up as she enjoyed the feeling of his lips and tongue upon her.

However, he then withdrew as he slowly began to trail kisses down her body, just enough to leave her wanting more in each area.

Down her neck, he paused to gently breathe into her ear while gently pushing back the lock of hair that had escaped from behind her.

He paused to gather up her long beautiful red hair and display it on either side of her, making her somehow feel like a goddess as her lustrous hair framed much of her body.

She could tell that he wanted her, a look of need clear upon his face as he ravished her body, trailing his kisses further down at her collarbone before gently laying several kisses upon her large breasts.

She arched her back in further anticipation for him to continue the assault upon her two hills, but instead he moved down to her belly, which only jutted out ever so slightly, practically flat especially from the sharp contrast that her two breasts jutted so far out.

He licked her belly button in slow circles, causing her to imagine how this would feel when he got to her true hole just below it.

She was not disappointed as he found her snatch and kissed, licked, then sucked it.

A huge gasp came from her as she orgasmed right there, something Harry was entirely aware of as he tasted and savored her newly expelled juices, sucking or licking them up with his tongue.

"Ooh," She couldn't help moan.

While she could have easily been content to have him continue on this forever, he was not done.

Returning to moving down her body, he got her inner thighs, which for some reason always got her going.

By the time he got down to her feet, she was already in heaven but to make things only better he got to her feet and kissed and sucked each of her little toes.

Grateful that her feet had been washed thoroughly recently, he savored the taste of each one, which felt surprisingly good to her as well.

By now he had moved entirely off of the mental script to speak of what she wanted, but he was doing fine all on his own.

He finally moved up to where she always liked him to end: her breasts.

While some large breasted girls complained or disliked their boobs, she absolutely loved them and wasn't afraid to show them off either. As Tonks had put it, breasts like hers should be proudly displayed not attempt to hide their true size.

When it came to size, she had just graduated to a 32F, a size that would be unbelievable to most people, but which she considered smaller than she wanted to ultimately have.

Her now F cup breasts made her feel special and beautiful and while Harry might have been able to focus on the total package when it came to girls, when it came to just the relationship she and he had, he was unquestionably a boob man.

It gave her a certain thrill to watch him unable to avoid staring whenever she displayed her cleavage or when she bared them naked before him as she was now.

At the moment, all he was doing was staring, causing her to swell with satisfaction at getting his attention.

She even arched her back forward to make them appear even more prominent.

"I love your breasts Susan," Harry claimed.

Having done this enough times by now, he knew that she enjoyed it when he said stuff like this.

Moving down he began to kiss them starting at the edges and moving his way inward.

"I love your...(kiss)...big...(kiss)...beautiful...(kiss). ..boobs," He told her.

When he got to her left nipple, he teased it with his lips and gently bit on it with exactly the right amount of force.

It could have been an entire half hour he spent on her breasts alone and she finally said, "You've already been so good to me Harry. I think it's your turn."

"I'm already having so much fun on you though," Harry claimed.

"This will be for both of us," Susan replied.

She'd been wanting to try this out for awhile now but this was the first time actually doing it.

After she got him to position himself just right where he was practically on top of her, she grasped his large cock, resisting the urge to handle it simply with her hands and instead nestled it into her cleavage.

Pushing both of her boobs together so that they pushed against either side of his cock, she had him shove and rub against them.

Glancing down at the wonderful expression on his face, it turned her on so much to know that her boobs were doing that to him.

A moan escaped from his lips and she grinned, "You enjoying this Harry?"

"Ooooh yeah," He agreed.

As already turned on as he already had been, he did not last long as he shot out cum, all over her neck and face, some of which she lapped up with her tongue.

It tasted delicious and gave her ideas for something else she planned to do once she felt Harry would be more comfortable.

"I love you Susan," Harry told her.

"Yeah you do," She agreed.

He gave her a look, and she finally said, "I love you too Harry."

DUELDUELDUEL

Meanwhile Dumbledore was already planning to go forward with the next step in his plan. Not so much Lily, but instead his own first secret clone: Barty Crouch.

He had finally managed to perfect his system and it should remove any autonomy or ability to object to anything he asked. All clones from here on out would be totally and irreversibly loyal to him. It may require a bit of additional tweaking but he was confident that it would ultimately be successful. He wasn't Albus Dumbledore for nothing.

DUELDUELDUEL

Author's Note: First of all Tonks' promise is actually a promise on my part as well. Dumbledore's plan is going to be discovered by then.

I also find it extremely interesting that despite all of the controversial stuff I have had in this story, cloning has actually been the one people have felt most strongly about or at least objected the most to. Still I applaud that since it really has gotten many of you readers thinking, although many of you are rather antsy and just don't even like thinking about it.

So let me briefly explain my thoughts on it. Is cloning wrong? In my personal opinion yes, however if the clones have already been made then simply killing them all would at least raise some ethical questions. If a clone is evil or has no willpower of its own, it would be easy to justify killing it however in other circumstances no. For example, twins can actually be considered clones of each other, since they are a total genetic copy of one another. However none of us would ever dream of simply killing off one or both of a pair of twins.

Technically we could, not legally but scientifically create human clones in a lab however and that would be a different story. Is it right? That's for you to decide.

When it comes to Ariana however as the first successfully made human clone it raises tons of issues and I don't blame people for not liking her simply because she is a clone.

I've received plenty of reviews from people expressing their desire to see her be killed. While that was my original intention, an unexpected occurrence happened. As I began to work on her as a character, I began to experience the feelings that many authors feel towards their characters: a sort of protectiveness and pride over her, even feeling defensive when reviewers spoke ill of her or demanded her death. It could almost be compared to if I really did create Ariana as a clone in real life and while I originally only thought of her as a clone, not really a person and feeling that it would be easy to kill her off, to a feeling of love or at least deep appreciation for her as a character. Yet if I really had created a clone, people would still demand that she be destroyed.

To me however it has gotten to the point that I can't bring myself to do that. To me I see a teenage girl who has no idea just what she is or what her place in life will be, feelings which will only be stronger later on once she finds out she is a clone. She actually does have a soul and within that soul will come anguish and a feeling that she is an abomination and that she should kill herself. Is that thinking justified? Should she die because of the evil actions of someone else creating her? She didn't choose to be a clone or be created and has always tried to be a good person. She herself has never done anything wrong enough to deserve death, other than the fact that she is a clone. I understand if you can't handle having her in the story, but she's staying. That being said, however, she won't occupy as much attention as she has for the last few chapters, but still be a rather important character.


	39. Rage of a Veela

Author's Note: Early on in the story, I decided on an evil Dumbledore as the major villain, but I also wanted to make sure he wasn't the usual over-the-top almost cartoonish villain you often see him depicted as. I also didn't want all of his personality or what his plans were to be automatically known so I gradually made him worse and worse as more was learned about him. In the beginning he comes across as rather weak, having to cozy up to Snape but as his plan reaches fruition, he depends less and less upon him and more only on himself.

He begins the story coming across as having done some bad things but done them for the greater good. That's exactly the way Dumbledore sees himself as he genuinely believes he isn't evil.

Taking it from his point of view, little is known about his true agenda as he hides it from everyone as best as he can.

If that isn't classic Dumbledore, I don't know what is. In the books we usually don't know why Dumbledore does certain things until later since he hides it from everyone, believing that to be the best thing to do.

I used the already existing canon backstory we learn about in the 7th book with him and Grindelwald and used it to my own purposes. I didn't even need to make up anything for a "take over the world dumbledore" since it already existed.

As far as the fanfiction stories I have read, nobody seems to have fully addressed the issue as to what if Dumbledore never dropped his plans for world domination, but merely postponed them because he realized it just wasn't achievable?

We never learn the full reason why he abandons such plans in canon. Sure he gets into a fight with Grindelwald and his brother is attacked and his sister killed, but in my mind there would still be plenty of reason to try for world domination on his own once Grindelwald was taken out.

For this reason, I'd say it would be likely that Dumbledore realized that it just wasn't feasible to take over the world, particularly as he watched Grindelwald try to do it and fail.

I have a much longer explanation for this, but this author's note is already long enough. I simply couldn't resist. I love author's notes.

Chapter 39

Rage of a Veela

In the passing months Dumbledore had had plenty of success with his plans.

After cautiously starting out with Ariana and then Lily and Barty Crouch, he had slowly added more clones and was now up to half a dozen by now.

As things continued to go well he intended to continue increasing that number.

His only known problem was Severus Snape, who kept bothering him about being forced to lock Lily in a bunker.

Fortunately the time was not far off that he would no longer need Snape as he could manage on his own, or even make a clone of Snape if he really needed to later on.

While he was not the type to kill unless necessary as a body always lead to suspicion and questions, there was no denying Snape was a loose end. He and the Lily clone would have to be dealt with very soon.

With that being what he thought to be his only problem, the only other thing that could possibly stop his plan from going forward were Harry Potter and his little team of She-Spies, but he really wasn't worried about them by now.

Ariana had assured him they were getting nowhere and were close to giving up, which seemed perfectly believable.

None of them had the magical ability or skill in order to break into even his office, much less his private quarters or his secret cloning room. He didn't really care about his office all that much as there was nothing to find, but the other places were very heavily warded. Perhaps with a few years of time an extremely skilled Cursebreaker might manage it but it would be far beyond the skill of half a dozen school children.

If the Blacks planned to get dirt on him, they would need to send in better reinforcements than that.

That was why he was shocked to find as he surveyed his defenses using a spell, a small blip appeared.

It was small, barely noticeable and he likely wouldn't have noticed at all had he not been staring directly at it but paranoid as he was he turned on his visual spell to see just what was going on there.

What or more who it was that he was seeing shocked him.

It was Ariana!

His precious fake granddaughter and clone of his sister was trying to break in!

The repercussions of this he realized were huge. The fact that she would betray him like this and work with the enemy to bring him down were mind-blowing.

He had not anticipated this. Sure she had questioned him in the beginning, but he had thought she had put it past her and chalked it up to merely teen angst.

However long she had been working against him he couldn't be sure but one thing was certain; she could no longer be trusted and would have to be gotten rid of.

His first inclination was simply to go apprehend her immediately but then another idea came to mind.

Why not wait a little longer and make sure he took some of the others with her? If they were to be caught by not just him illegally breaking into his private room, such as a few teachers called together for whatever reason, it certainly wouldn't hurt.

Yet simply breaking and entering wouldn't be enough to actually get them expelled, perhaps get them a few weeks worth of detentions or something similar, but he wanted a strong reason with incontrovertible evidence that they should be expelled.

Why not help them be able to break into his room then but also add a few wards that would require the use of illegal spells?

It was still a rough plan but he still had time to work out the details.

DUELDUELDUEL

The night before the Third Task was to begin, Gabrielle found herself unable to get back to sleep after having yet another nightmare.

In situations like this, she had found the only remedy to be going to Harry's bedroom and sleep cuddled next to him. For some reason she always found this to be very relaxing and oh so enjoyable, having him hold her in his arms as they snuggled together.

She thought of him as her Harry, having already claimed him as the one man for her.

Forever and always, she thought.

Fortunately he was never upset when he was disturbed from his sleep when either she or one of the other girls decided to wake him up.

This time was no exception as after she had tapped him on the shoulder and woken him up, he graciously moved over on his bed to allow her access so she could lie down next to him.

She did so, quite content to have him wrap his arms around her.

Oh how she loved having her Harry do that!

"You have another nightmare?" He asked her.

"Yes," She admitted, "it was about you. I dreamt that you were competing in the Third Task tomorrow and got killed."

"I'd say that since I'm not even competing that the odds are pretty slim that that will come true." Harry told her.

"Obviously, but Fleur sure is." Gabrielle reminded him.

"Fleur knows what she's doing, she's probably already well equipped to handle anything after all of the training she's done for it." Harry tried to reassure her.

"I know, but there is still always a chance." Gabrielle replied, now snuggling closer into him.

"She'll do fine." Harry said, even though she could tell even he was a bit worried nonetheless.

"I'll just be glad when it's all over tomorrow and I can stop worrying about any of us being in danger." Gabrielle said.

For some reason she had been having a feeling that there was ever increasing danger for the past few weeks.

She kept telling herself it was only because the Third Task was getting closer however as there didn't appear to be any other reason for her paranoia.

There was Dumbledore of course, but there was still little cause to really fear him. He wouldn't risk actually harming them as it would simply be too dangerous for himself.

While they hadn't yet found too much else about him, they were quite hopeful as Ariana had finally managed to crack the enchantments he had placed upon his own private quarters.

She, Tonks, and Su would be going in to check them out while the tournament was going on since Dumbledore should be gone the entire time.

If he did decide to head back it would be the rest of their job while they watched the task to make sure he was stalled enough and given them enough to get out before he headed back.

"I love you Harry." Gabrielle told him after another minute.

"I love you too." He told her.

No matter how often he said this, she always got a huge thrill from hearing him say that to her.

She was still awake enough to suggest something however.

"Do you want to have sex?" She asked him teasingly.

It wasn't really sex what they did, not in the truest sense of intercourse, but after just what they actually did do, she wasn't really sure what else to call it.

"Do you really have to call it sex?" He questioned.

"You can call it whatever you like," She answered, "but we do pretty much everything besides actually having you inside me."

"True, but this way I can at least claim to still be abstinent whenever Professor McGonagall asks." Harry pointed out.

Amelia had long since given up on them but Professor McGonagall was still sticking very much to the school rules, which included no sex between students.

She seemed to regard Harry as a very obvious candidate to break this rule however, not really caring much what McGonagall thought.

"Do you know if Ariana and Susan have done it yet?" Gabrielle asked.

She'd been wanting to ask this question of Susan but had been too afraid to ask.

"Susan promised me that she wouldn't so I could be her first." Harry informed her, "It's basically just occasional kissing and boob fondling is all they are doing, and they've been just friends with a few benefits for quite awhile. Susan didn't feel right about being romantic with her when she's already with me."

"How come Susan never told any of us?" Gabrielle asked.

"It's mainly because she's been trying to help protect Ariana." Harry answered.

"Protect her how?" Gabrielle questioned.

"In case you haven't noticed, Ariana can be very open when it comes to her sexuality and other guys have definitely paid attention to it. As long as they think that Susan is still with her though, they'll stay away. If not she's afraid she'll get taken advantage of."

Gabrielle sighed and said, "I love Ariana, and she's incredibly smart but she's also far too innocent in some respects for her own good."

"That's why Susan has been trying to protect her. She's basically been trying to find a replacement for her crush on me this entire time." Harry told her.

"You would think she would get over it by now but she stares at you more than any one of us actually do." Gabrielle claimed.

"I'm just not sure what to do. I really like Ariana, and I consider her a very good friend but I just can't occupy that space for her." Harry admitted.

There were many reasons for this, all of which would be quite valid but the main one was this: he already was unable to spend the time with each girl that they wanted.

"I understand." Gabrielle said before saying, "So do you want to have sex now?"

"Of course." He answered.

"Ooh, so I do get to be your first?" Gabrielle teased.

"I think that's why I haven't done it yet." Harry confessed, "I know that no matter who I pick, the other girls will be jealous."

"Then I suppose it really doesn't matter then." She pointed out.

"I suppose you're right..." Harry concluded, "I really don't have any preferences for who would be my first, we're all going to have sex eventually given time, so any of you I would be quite happy with. At this point I feel like I should just do it, which leads me to ask; do you want to have sex Gabrielle?"

"Me?" Gabrielle asked in shock, "You want me to be your first?"

It had not even occurred to her that Harry would ask this question. Him being her first was a no brainer but with plenty of other girls around she had never even dared to think that she would be given such an honor.

"Are you sure you wouldn't want it to be someone else?" Gabrielle asked.

"I just feel like this is the right place, the right time, and with the right person." Harry told her.

Even though she hadn't been expecting it she had already prepared and knew the contraception spell that she would need so she wasn't about to turn it down.

"Then I'm going to give you a definite yes." Gabrielle answered, "Yet now that we're really going to be doing this, there's something you'll need to know."

Harry groaned and asked, "Are you really going to try to give me the Talk again?"

She laughed and said, "No, but there is something else that we haven't exactly told you. It's kind of a secret that Veela have. You know that a Veela has the power to be extremely attractive to males and some women and also cause them to not be able to think straight, but there's more to it than that."

"Veela can use it to somewhat control men and get them to do what they want them to in order to gain their favor, I know," Harry finished for her, "I know you wouldn't abuse me or anyone else in that regard Gabby."

"Of course I wouldn't and you've gotten immune anyway so it wouldn't work." Gabby added, "However there is more to it. When a Veela decides on a suitable sexual partner and has intercourse for the first time, their magic changes and takes on that of an adult Veela. I'd have a few more abilities than I've had. For example, when I get angry I'd become more birdlike and grow feathers. I'd also have the ability to conjure fire. Furthermore, I'd have better sexual stamina and since you would be the one taking my virginity, so would you. That last part is also just why Veela virgins are so highly sought after."

He supposed that didn't sound too bad. With many different girls to please, he was already usually worn out.

"I don't have a problem with that if you don't." Harry answered.

"I don't, so let's get started." Gabrielle suggested eagerly.

They both began undressing and Gabrielle then cast the contraception charm on herself.

Gabrielle was rather proud of her body, it was perfect in every way, with large 26 E cup breasts, a nice firm body and a succulent rear that was covered by her below butt length hair so that guys wouldn't be able to stare at it as easily.

She turned around for him to see her body, pleased to see that no matter how many times he had seen it, he always had the same expression on his face: total amazement.

"You're so sexy Gabrielle," He confessed.

"I know," She answered shamelessly, "you're pretty good yourself."

He replied with a grin and saying: "Just pretty good huh?"

"Okay fine, you're totally hot and I simply can't resist you, you happy now?" Gabrielle asked.

"It'll do for now," Harry told her, leaning in and kissing her.

They began to make out with their bodies closely pressed against one another with her finding that his cock was pressed right up against her belly since he was taller than her.

She simply couldn't resist grasping it causing him to gasp.

"You want to already?" He asked.

"I just love touching it," She confessed.

She really did, and it was something he should already know by now.

Deciding to disregard where she had placed her hands, he continued kissing her while he slowly brought his hands underneath her hair and onto her bum.

Her bum wasn't her favorite place but it certainly wasn't her worst and it would do for now, both cheeks feeling so magnificent in his capable hands.

All the while though Gabrielle had an idea come to mind, something she had been dying to do but hadn't since it would have been a bit too forward until now.

Dropping down onto her knees, so that his penis was directly in front of her face, Harry asked: "What are you doing?"

"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm going to suck your cock," Gabrielle answered.

With surprise already written upon his face, she managed to get her mouth around it.

She fought the inclination to gag and instead proceeded to push it in deeper into her small mouth.

The realization that she now had Harry's penis in her mouth was only trumped by the realization that no matter what part of her body he had it placed into, she would definitely like it. She would be trying at least two tonight.

She began to suck on it as she enjoyed watching the look upon his face as she pleasured him with her mouth. It was big and her mouth felt full of it, but that was even better!

Eventually Harry said, "Um, Gabrielle, could you pull out now?"

Reluctantly she did so, still savoring his delicious pre-cum.

"What's the matter Harry? Didn't you like that?" She asked.

"Oh I definitely did but that's the problem," He confessed, "I was already about to cum."

"Then I know exactly just where to put it," She answered happily

She was eager now to have Harry inside her. Not long ago, they had persuaded him to let them measure him to see what size he was. He measured in at 6 and a half which while they weren't sure, definitely seemed like a decent size for an adult, and impressive for someone his age, before any real major growth spurts were scheduled to happen.

She volunteered to guide him in, she loved handling Harry's cock, especially now that it would finally be entering her.

It looked and felt huge in her tiny hands but as she helped line it up to her entrance, she was quite hopeful that she would be able to handle him.

Like all Veela, she had an oversized opening capable of handling even the biggest of guys, but would adjust to make the perfect fit.

Her favorite part of her body was indeed her pussy and until now she had been content with Harry simply eating her out but now she would have what she really wanted.

Pushing in, she could feel him now stuck against her hymen.

"Break it." She commanded.

"Won't it hurt?" He asked her.

"Just a little, I'll get over it in a second." Gabrielle told him.

With a thrust, Harry broke it and Gabrielle's world exploded.

Not from pain as she had been expecting but more she could actually feel her magic change as far it was concerned, she was now a woman.

She felt different, more complete somehow and more energized.

Conversely she could feel some of her magic leaving her and entering Harry.

Not a lot, but enough that he definitely noticed.

"I feel different." Harry admitted.

"So do I." Gabrielle answered.

"I suppose what I feel is nothing compared to you." Harry surmised.

"Definitely," She agreed, "although right now mostly I feel like we need to complete it."

He agreed and she reveled in the feel of him inside her. It felt perfect, not too loose or too tight.

Since neither of them really knew exactly what they were doing, he began to thrust into her at a quick pace that both enjoyed.

Gosh it felt so good!

Even as he did so, she could feel changes begin to take place in her, changes that also made her feel really good at the same time.

He didn't even need to announce when he was going to cumming into her, she could already feel it build up from within.

Then... he exploded inside her, jets of thick, hot cum deep flooded her insides and something seemed to click.

She was now officially an adult Veela.

They both collapsed, him still inside her although now flaccid.

"Well that was certainly something," Gabrielle said.

"Definitely," He agreed.

"Ready to go again?" She asked already.

"Give me awhile," He asked.

"Suck my titties until then," She suggested.

Her breasts, having been ignored the whole evening, now needed to have some attention on them as well.

Unsurprisingly, he took her suggestion by taking her left boob into her mouth. Her magnificent boob with an oversized nipple, matched only by her other one.

He began to slowly suck it as she imagined just what those boobs would do, providing not only enjoyment for her Harry, but also nourishment for Harry's and her babies that she would one day have.

The act of sex that they had just committed would one day provide that opportunity to bring new life into the world. It provided yet another beautiful aspect to just how wonderful she was finding sex to be.

Turning her mind back to what was going on, she inserted a couple of fingers deep into her pussy, still full of his baby batter cum in anticipation for having Harry inside her yet again.

DUELDUELDU

The next morning they were both understandably exhausted, although not as much as they should have been for having stayed up most of the night having sex and waking up early to do it again.

Harry remarked on having better stamina and so did she.

He was going to need it, not just for the other girls but just for her. Having found the wonderfulness of sex, she would want it as much as she could get it.

Although they resolved not to tell the other girls until the tournament was over, she wasn't able to pull off hiding it from Fleur.

After taking one look at her that morning, Fleur pulled her aside.

"You and Harry had sex didn't you?" She asked.

Her question was not in an angry tone, but Gabrielle still felt slightly nervous as she said, "Yes."

"I can actually see your Veela magic right now." Fleur remarked, "He must have done a real number on you."

"He did." Gabrielle answered, grinning.

"I'm happy for you, sis." Fleur said supportively.

"I always thought that it would be you." Gabrielle confessed.

"I might have wanted to be his first, but if not me, then I'm glad it's you." Fleur told her, "Besides this means I won't have to wait long myself. So you want to tell me how it went?"

"It was amazing!" Gabrielle told her.

She was about to tell her everything when suddenly McGonagall came by to remind Fleur that she needed to start getting ready for the Task.

If McGonagall had really heard anything she certainly would have said something, they weren't too worried, however Fleur had to reluctantly say, "We'll talk after the tournament is over."

"We'll talk after you win." Gabrielle insisted with an impish grin.

DUELDUELDUEL

Later on that day Tonks, Su, and Ariana while the third task was taking place, headed over to where Dumbledore's private quarters were located.

First they had to break through to even get into the hallway that led to his room.

Since this was still a public area where they would be starting at, Su kept watch while Ariana and Tonks worked on the various enchantments placed upon the gargoyle guarding the entrance to the secret passageway.

If they had a password it would have been significantly easier, but unlike his office, this had significantly tighter security with a likely good password.

Since Ariana had already bypassed this section of security already she managed to do it quickly and then move on.

After heading inside they headed down to his actual room, going slowly as Ariana took out several more security spells.

Finally they reached the actual room and this had been the cause of most of their trouble.

Even with Ariana's considerable skills, this had proven to be quite the challenge.

They had all literally spent months figuring it out.

As Tonks surveyed just what she could detect, she couldn't help but exclaim, "I've got to say, if anyone looking to hire a Cursebreaker saw what you've had to do here, they would hire you on the spot Ariana. Age and experience wouldn't even matter."

She blushed and said, "I'm sure that there are plenty of others far more skilled than me."

Unfortunately Tonks knew this wasn't true. Dumbledore's security spells were so tight that even the best of Cursebreakers would have taken years to get in. Without Ariana they would have never achieved it themselves.

Ariana, as skilled as she was however, was always incredibly modest and usually didn't like using magic all that much.

Dueling for example she could have matched up well against any of them but simply preferred to be a spectator and watch them.

Whenever she dueled Harry, however, she always lost, either because of nerves or because she simply let him win, the crush she had had on him having only grown as time had passed.

Finally Ariana declared, "I'm in!"

She opened the door as they all went in.

Whatever they were expecting to find, they were not expecting to find Professors McGonagall, Moody, and Sprout all standing there inside as if they had been waiting for them.

"Completely shameful!" Professor McGonagall declared as she stared disapprovingly, "breaking into the Headmaster's own private room like this!"

"I would have thought you were better than this." Sprout agreed, also looking at them disapprovingly.

Professor Sprout was generally rather nice, so they supposed they could forgive her this time for being upset with them. After all they had just broken a pretty major school rule without any excusable reason for doing so.

"How did you even know we would be breaking in?" Ariana asked.

"Dumbledore tipped us off and said that you might be coming and to wait for you here if you decided to show up while he handled the tournament. Obviously he was right." McGonagall admitted.

"We were just doing it because Dumbledore is up to no good." Su complained.

"Right now the only ones I see up to no good are you three." McGonagall pointed out.

Tonks struggled to come up with a viable excuse but there was none. It had been the risk they had taken in coming here.

They were forced to wait another few minutes before Dumbledore entered after Moody had confiscated their wands.

He looked at them with an expression of disappointment but none of them were fooled. He most certainly was quite happy about having caught them.

"I'm sorry to learn that my suspicions were correct." Dumbledore announced with a tone of sadness that would have rivaled the best of actors, "I'm sorry to see 3 students go so wayward that they would stoop this low. Professor Moody have you checked their wands for the last spells they used?"

"Yes," Moody grimly replied, "some of the spells they evidently used to break in are most certainly illegal."

"Oh my," Dumbledore uttered, "well that's a real shame. I suppose I have no choice then but to expel them."

Both Sprout and McGonagall seemed shocked at that and Sprout asked, "Don't you think that's a little bit extreme? They've generally been good students other than this incident, surely a lesser punishment would be warranted in this case."

"I'm afraid that my hands are tied." Dumbledore informed her, "with such a serious infraction, I have no choice but to expel them."

"I do believe that we are entitled to a more thorough examination and trial in the wizengamot before any action is taken." Tonks pointed out.

With both Narcissa and Amelia helping out, they had a good chance at getting it overturned.

"Certainly," Dumbledore replied before turning to the assembled teachers, "may I have a word with them alone?"

They all looked reluctant but did as Dumbledore requested.

As soon as they had left the room, Su let out a flurry of expletives while Dumbledore set up silencing spells so that the teachers just outside could not overhear their conversation.

"There will be no need for that Ms. Li." Dumbledore insisted.

"How did you even know we were going to break in?" Ariana demanded.

"Did you really think you could hide your betrayal from me?" Dumbledore asked, "I'm dismayed I have to do this to you but it's for your own good. My only question is why, why go against your very own grandfather?"

"I found out the truth about you from Aberforth," Ariana admitted.

Dumbledore did not seem surprised by this but said, "I should have guessed that my fool of a brother would mess things up again."

"I cannot deny what I know in my heart," Ariana claimed, "you aren't the man I had always looked up to. Answer me this, are you not still trying to take over the world?"

Dumbledore laughed and answered, "Take over the world? Me? Aberforth has filled you with lies. I confess I might have had a few fantasies of taking over the world, but many a boy has had similar fantasies, that doesn't make them evil. Besides how would I ever accomplish such a thing? I'm a headmaster of a school, not a dictator with a humongous army."

"If there was one person who could find a way it would be you." Tonks pointed out.

"I suppose I should be flattered." Dumbledore told her, "I would indeed make a great world ruler as the world would truly be a better place with me leading it. However the world will always be too foolish to realize that. I would fail either through conquest or through diplomacy I assure you."

"You seem to have already given this a lot of thought." Su noted.

"I defeated a would-be world conqueror myself I need remind you. I had to know what his thinking was." Dumbledore reminded them.

"Are you denying he was once your friend?" Tonks asked.

"Grindelwald was a fool," Dumbledore claimed, "he had no chance of taking over much of anything. There are billions of muggles and only a few million wizards. There never was any chance of wizards enslaving muggles."

"When did you figure that out?" Su questioned.

"I do not need to further explain myself to any of you." Dumbledore argued, now having apparently decided their conversation was done, "you'll be accompanying some of the teachers out of the school grounds to await your trial. In the meantime I have other business."

Dumbledore strode out of the room, leaving the 3 of them alone after making sure they were properly incapacitated by freezing up their bodies so they couldn't move.

For the moment they would simply have to wait things out and hope for the best.

DUELDUELDUEL

Meanwhile Gabrielle, Harry, Pansy, and Susan all sat in the stands watching Fleur compete in the Third Task using the giant magical screen that displayed each of the Champions along with a small map in the corner showing just where exactly they were in the maze.

Harry was no doubt currently wishing that he could have gone with Ariana, Su, and Tonks, but he also knew that Fleur had asked him in particular to be there for support.

However Gabrielle would swear that he was there more to support her as he held her hand as she could only watch helplessly as her sister faced plenty of dangerous obstacles. Fleur seemed to be doing fine but she almost believed it was more scary for her having to just watch than it actually was for any of the competitors.

Fleur was doing fantastic at any rate and despite more than a few tense moments when she ran into a few obstacles such as a Blast Ended Screwt, Fluffy the three headed dog, and a couple giant spiders, things were looking up as she neared the center of the maze where the cup was.

The final obstacle appeared to be a sphinx but Fleur managed to get the answer easily; a spider.

Rushing on, no longer impeded by anything, she got to the cup and they all began cheering even before she got there.

Yet as Fleur touched the cup, to their horror they saw Fleur immediately vanish. Just vanish as if she had totally disappeared off the face of the earth.

However, Ludo Bagman spoke out using a magically amplified voice, "Don't be alarmed people, this was planned. It's merely a Portkey meant to send her back here so she doesn't have to go through the maze again."

"They could have told us beforehand!" Pansy mumbled, "That totally scared me."

"I was scared too." Gabrielle admitted.

"So where is she then?" Harry asked as he looked around.

"Probably in the medical tent or something still." Susan suggested.

As everyone waited for Fleur to re-emerge, Harry announced: "I think I'm going to go look for her."

"I'm sure everything is fine." Susan tried to reassure him.

"I just have a bad feeling about this." Harry answered.

The truth be told, Gabrielle was feeling rather anxious herself, but she decided to wait another couple minutes before she started to panic.

Harry, in the meantime, left to go check things out.

As the minutes dragged by however, Gabrielle got more and more anxious and she could tell so was everyone else.

She finally could no longer take it any longer and started getting off the stands already when Bagman announced, "We can't seem to find the Bhampion, but nobody worry, I'm sure she'll turn up somewhere."

With that doing little to reassure her that things were still okay, she managed to get down to where some of the judges were.

Dumbledore was currently there along with Ludo Bagman, Barty Crouch, and Madame Maxime being the only judges as Karkaroff was still boycotting it. They hadn't seen the judges for awhile since they had stayed in the judges' tent for so long but now they were more out in the open.

She could already hear Barty Crouch arguing with Madame Maxime.

"You were the one we appointed to place the cup inside the maze!" Crouch yelled at Madame Maxime.

"I don't understand how this could have happened," She insisted, "I merely put the cup down and that was that."

"Dumbledore decides to trust you with just one little thing and you can't even manage to get even that right." Crouch countered.

"Where's my sister?" Gabrielle demanded.

All of the judges turned to look at her.

Perhaps if it was just some random spectator it might have been different but there was no doubt that Fleur was her sister and they seemed to immediately have flashes of guilt write across their faces.

"We don't know, but we're working on it." Madame Maxime told her.

"What kind of a tournament is this that you can suddenly lose a Champion like this?" Gabrielle asked angrily, "You will find me my sister!"

"We're doing the best we can Ms. Delacour." Dumbledore tried to reassure her.

"I don't need any reassurances from you." Gabrielle insisted, "How do I know you didn't actually plan this Dumbledore?"

"That will be quite enough young lady with those baseless accusations." Crouch informed her.

Something within her snapped as a feeling of release overcame her. She thrust out her hand directly at Dumbledore without planning to.

He was several yards away so it shouldn't have done anything but instead a large fireball erupted from her hand and onto his beard as it immediately caught fire.

While Dumbledore put out the flames, she looked down in shock at her arms.

They were feathery. She hadn't ever had this happen before, even when she had been angry.

However once she had gotten over her surprise, she realized that she should have expected it. She was an adult Veela now and this would be one of the side effects.

At least in this case it wasn't a bad thing as she watched with some satisfaction as Dumbledore's beard was mostly burnt off.

The other judges were staring at her with shock as they viewed the changes taking place in her.

"What's the matter? Never seen a Veela before?" Gabrielle asked.

She had meant it sound rather casual to offset them, but what likely offset them even more was that her voice sounded more high pitched and more bird-like.

"Gabby?" Came Susan's voice behind her.

She turned around to see Susan and Pansy, both looking worried.

While she didn't care about most of the judges, with the exception of Madame Maxime, she did care about Susan and she could tell that she was understandably unnerved by her appearance.

"It's nothing, just a Veela thing, you saw the same thing at the world cup." Gabrielle reminded her.

"We just haven't seen you look this way." Pansy pointed out, who was standing right next to Susan.

"It happens when I feel like killing someone for losing my sister!" Gabrielle yelled after turning to glare at the judges.

There followed a rather nervous stalemate as the judges tried to figure things out as Dumbledore went to go see what he could salvage of his precious beard.

Personally Gabrielle hoped that Dumbledore couldn't salvage any of it. If not she was more than happy to throw another fireball at him, immediately enjoying a new found benefit of her status.

She knew rationally that this would likely get her into trouble since she had been lucky to escape it the first time she threw a fireball at him, but Dumbledore surprisingly decided not to punish her and simply go try and fix it himself.

It was another few minutes before Susan asked, "So where exactly is Harry? I thought he would be here himself."

"Mr. Potter was never here as far as I know." Madame Maxime answered.

"Then where is he then?" Pansy asked.

Another bad feeling came to Gabrielle and after what had occurred with the last bad feeling with Fleur, she knew that it couldn't be good.

It could be nothing and he could be anywhere, but the fact was at this point in time Harry was missing as well.

DUELDUELDUEL

Author's Note: I've thought about it dozens of times but the only way I can see that Voldemort's plan in canon wasn't ridiculously complicated and stupid was that the Triwizard cup was actually meant to be a Portkey and required the use of a security clearance that only Dumbledore had. Otherwise anyone could have simply created a Portkey to whisk Harry away at any time, if not at Hogwarts but perhaps in Hogsmeade. Simply handing him a Butterbeer that was a Portkey would have been sufficient.

If, however, Dumbledore activated the cup as a Portkey which would be believable so that the Champions wouldn't have to go all the way back through the maze or wait for someone to come and get them and simply appear on top of the winner's podium or whatever in front of all the spectators.

If the fake Moody were to then manage to get the job of placing the Cup inside the maze himself without actually touching it, he could have simply changed the destination of the Portkey with the assumption that he did it without any further security clearance. That's really the only way that his stupid plan actually makes sense, even though it was incredibly complicated and too likely to fail.


	40. The One you've all been waiting for

Author's Note: A reminder to everyone that Horcruxes _do not_ exist in this story. I also told several people in replies to reviews that Dumbledore would finally get a little payback. He gets a little bit of it at the end of this chapter, but less than is intended since the chapter quickly got too long for me to get to that part. Thanks.

Chapter 40

The One you've all been waiting for

The monster known as Voldemort had always been forced to be far too reliant on others than he would have liked, while in school relying upon charity to pay for his school tuition, relying upon his Death Eaters to be able to help take over magical Britain, while in hiding relying upon animal bodies to inhabit, or the back of Quirrell's head a few years back.

Never was he more reliant on others than now however, as he could only lay there in the graveyard with his pathetic temporary and weak body, hoping that Barty Crouch Jr. was correct and that MacNair had succeeded in his plan to bring both Harry Potter and the girl to him.

The boy at least was necessary for his rebirth. Otherwise, just one touch from him or one spell cast at him and he'd likely be right back where he started, living as a disembodied piece of dragon dung, though even that would be an improvement to what he had been reduced to.

Also if he was to regain the support of his now disbanded Death Eaters, he would need to start by killing Potter and proving that he was better than a mere child.

If MacNair had failed or decided to prove disloyal to him, than he would be forced to wait and try to devise another way to get to him, and in his present condition it would be impossible, forcing him to yet again rely upon others for help.

This would never do for an all powerful Dark Lord and eventual ruler of the world. He was eager to get back his body and prove just how strong he still could be.

At least the body he would be making for himself would be even better than he had before.

In addition to several improvements he would be adding to the rebirth potion, he would be using a Veela's blood as well. If done right, he would be able to absorb at least some of her ability. Not the insane attraction part, he could care less for such things. What got him off was torturing people of course.

He wanted more her ability to get at least men to do what they wanted them to do in order to gain their favor, a useful skill that he would certainly be able to use. He usually got his Death Eaters to operate through fear but this way he would be able to do so through greater devotion to him.

The fact that it would be coming from Potter's own wench, the most beautiful of all his little harem he had been putting together only made her more sweet of a prize.

Now all he had to do was hope and wait.

Finally as he watched a glimmer of light appeared as he watched as two individuals and the Triwizard cup appeared right in front of him.

"Knock the girl out!" He commanded Barty Jr immediately so that they could have no chance of getting away.

Immediately his minion did as requested and knocked the girl out with a spell.

He allowed the boy to retain consciousness however. He wanted him to witness his rebirth.

Instead Barty quickly put him under a full body bind, with him not putting up much of a struggle.

He was also tied up to a gravestone for good measure as well.

While he considered it rather disappointing that his young nemesis had failed to put up much of a fight as he had heard of his dueling prowess, he was also relieved that he had not managed to escape.

He used Legilimency on the boy to ascertain if it was really him. A quick perusal of his mind revealed that he had nothing but what you would expect to find in his head.

Deciding to ignore him for now, he had Barty Jr. go through the ritual.

To his credit, Barty did so flawlessly, not even hesitating when it required cutting off his own arm or getting blood from both the boy and the girl.

He at least had been proven to be a totally loyal follower, a quite rare and valuable person to find. With his skills he'd make sure he went far in the death eater organization. He'd make a good asset.

Finally, the moment he had been waiting for arrived as he was picked up and dumped into the huge cauldron.

It was certainly painful, but he could still feel himself growing as his body was restored, better than ever.

After a minute, he felt his legs were strong enough for him to rise out of the cauldron.

"Robe me." He commanded Barty Jr.

Immediately his servant did so as he placed robes upon him as he stepped out of the cauldron.

Testing out his new body to make sure that it had been a success, he was pleased to find that he now had full use of it.

Barty Jr. handed him his wand and he used it to cast a spell at a gravestone, turning it into a dog which he promptly killed with a killing curse.

So he had full use of his magic as well. Good.

Finally he turned his attention back to his servant.

He seemed to guess just what he wanted and held out his still remaining arm, the one with the dark mark on it.

Pressing his wand against it, the image of the skull and the snake appeared as he called upon whatever Death Eaters were still loyal to him to return.

He waited patiently at first, wondering just who would come and who would be foolish enough not to yet as time passed he grew more and more impatient.

Surely they had had enough time by now?

He still waited, even for a full 20 minutes, but the only living thing to appear was a ladybug which he squashed with his foot.

"NONE!" He finally roared, "Not a single Death Eater is still loyal to me. COWARDS AND FOOLS THE LOT OF THEM!"

He started destroying gravestones just to release some pent up anger.

"Perhaps the connection no longer works after all this time or in your new body." Barty Jr. suggested.

Struggling to regain his composure, he had to concede that that was a possibility. It was certainly better than the alternative. Without any support, he was already doomed to fail and who knew how long it would take to regain their loyalty or build up an army of new followers.

He would simply have to deal with that later.

Finally he turned his attention to the boy, who appeared totally helpless and weak, now tied up to the gravestone as he sat next to his little Veela plaything.

With his blood now coursing through his veins, he could now kill him.

"So my young nemesis, we finally meet face to face." Voldemort said, addressing him.

To his credit, the boy appeared calm and collected, either through bravery or sheer stupidity.

"It appears that we finally do." He replied back his eyes looking back at him as if he was merely bored.

He decided that he would certainly be taught a lesson before he killed him for his lack of fear.

"I wanted you to witness my rebirth, witness that in spite of yourself that you were unable to prevent my inevitable return. I still will become the most powerful Dark Lord ever and take from you everything you and all the world holds dear." Voldemort told him with mirth.

"It looks like you're still missing the army to do it." He pointed out, having the nerve to actually laugh afterwards.

My Potter was a mouthy one. Perhaps he should rip his teeth and tongue out just to see how mouthy he was then.

"That will only be a minor setback. If you were to survive past this night, you would soon see that." Voldemort answered, "Perhaps if you beg for mercy I might let you live that long."

"From where I'm sitting, I'd say that you need to be the one to beg for mercy." He responded.

Potter evidently somehow thought that he was still not in any danger.

"Ah, if you are referring to your little mother's protection, you'll find it is no longer something you can simply hide behind." Voldemort informed him, "it may have worked for you before, but I assure you I can touch you now."

He put his hand directly onto his forehead where his scar was located and touched him.

To his great delight, he felt nothing, no pain, not even a damaged finger.

"You see!" Voldemort exclaimed, drinking it in as Potter was sure to now be trembling in fear, "Not even you can stop me and I shall prove it right here and right now! I'll allow you one last chance to save yourself in a duel with me."

His young enemy seemed totally unfazed and glanced over at Barty Jr. and asked, "How would you really prove that you are stronger than me if you are just going to use him to help you out?"

"I do not need anyone else to defeat you, my pathetic nemesis." Voldemort replied.

"Forgive me if I don't believe you." He countered.

Finally deciding that this really wasn't that much of an issue, since he really didn't need Barty Jr. to help him win, he addressed his servant and said, "I'm going to tie you up to a gravestone and knock you out."

"Master what if you require further assistance?" He asked, even as he cradled his stump of an arm.

"Fool! You dare question if I can manage to beat a mere 14 year old in a duel?" He demanded.

While he had been intending to give him a replacement arm, he decided he could do with managing without it for now.

Hitting him with a spell that knocked him out, he levitated his body over to a gravestone and then tied him up.

"There, now it is just the two of us." Voldemort pointed out.

He slashed open the boy's bounds which he immediately then came out of and stood facing him.

Tossing his wand at the boy, which he caught, they now both stood there armed.

"We shall begin by bowing to each other." Voldemort began.

"I know how duels are conducted." Potter reminded him calmly.

He had already grown tired of the boy, which would only make it more enjoyable when he tortured him before killing him.

To his credit, he bowed at the same time he did, and when the duel began, he was already ready and moving.

While he had heard that the boy was a world class duelist, he wasn't entirely sure of his exact skills, only that they weren't near as good as his own. Perhaps back when he had been the boy's age it would have been a rather close matched duel, but decades worth of experience would prove to be the deciding factor.

The boy dodged spells as well as he threw them, using spells far above his year level, but nothing he couldn't defend against.

Yet as the duel wore on, he continued using more and more advanced spells.

"It appears I may have underestimated you." Voldemort shot at him, "Still you'll have to do better than that if you hope to defeat me."

He said nothing in return, merely concentrating on casting his next spell, which he couldn't blame him for, likely being forced to concentrate as hard as he could on a duel even he must know he couldn't possibly win.

Even now, the strain of the duel was obviously already getting to him. He already appeared much older than his 14 years and his face and even his hair looked somehow whiter.

He was likely to crumble any minute now, he reasoned.

Yet just as he thought this, his opponent decided to make a last desperate assault, using magic even he had never seen before.

The first few spells he managed to defend against with a shield, but one somehow found a way through and hit him square in the chest.

With a grunt, he fell, but was bound before he even could hit the ground.

He could hear his opponent coming forward even as he lay there, unable to move.

Impossible! How could a mere boy defeat him like that? He was the greatest, most powerful sorcerer in the world and yet this boy had used more advanced magic than even he knew.

Only one wizard even had a hope of defeating him, he had thought...

"Hello Tom." his opponent addressed him as he came up to stand above him.

It was not the voice of Harry Potter, nor as he looked up at him was it the body of him either, only thing the same was that he was still wearing a school uniform. It was Dumbledore, his own wand now visible as not belonging to Harry either. Even that had evidently been enchanted without him realizing it.

Voldemort let out an inhuman laugh, even as he realized that he had been tricked. This was not Harry Potter, it had never been him. He had just had the duel he had always tried to avoid, and now he knew that he had been right to avoid it. In spite of all his efforts, his old teacher was still the most powerful.

"I suppose you found out about MacNair's plan?" Voldemort asked with a cackle.

"MacNair never had such a plan in the first place." Dumbledore claimed, "Right now, he's currently locked up, being stashed somewhere in case I can make further use of him. It was all part of my plan. The real Harry Potter is still locked up too, but the Veela at least is real, I just made sure that she was Portkeyed to a locked room before Portkeying with her directly after polyjuicing Harry Potter. She didn't have enough time to figure out I wasn't actually him. Barty Jr. in case you were wondering has always been loyal to you, even if you didn't realize that I was actually using him to lead me straight to you."

"Why not immediately do so? You could have simply captured or killed me while I was still weak." Voldemort pointed out.

"It would not have worked in favor of my plans." Dumbledore admitted, "Besides I've been wanting this duel for far too long for me not to want to take advantage. You've always been too much of a coward, Tom, in trying to avoid me."

"You're the coward!" Voldemort yelled, "Sitting there hiding in your cozy little office in that castle! You could have been great, yet you totally squandered your potential!"

"I've merely been biding my time." Dumbledore confessed.

"So it appears even you could not resist the desire for true power." Voldemort surmised.

"I have never tried to resist it." Dumbledore answered, "Indeed it has always been a goal of mine, for the greater good of course, but I have had to wait until I could finally find a way to succeed. Unlike you I actually have a plan that will work."

"How long do you really think it would take for you to be defeated if the Muggles ever found out about us? You should know all too well the destruction and power they have. They could destroy you easily."

"I had an effective plan." Voldemort claimed lamely.

"Would you happen to be referring to the army of the dead you planned on creating? An army that could not die, but simply be brought back to life whenever?" Dumbledore guessed.

"How did you know about that?" Voldemort demanded.

"I know more than you might realize Tom." Dumbledore told him, "Grindelwald tried to do the same and failed, and even I tried to do it myself and failed. It wasn't until I finally admitted that it was impossible did I finally succeed."

"So let's hear this master plan of yours." Voldemort demanded.

"I've already decided to tell you Tom, not just because you'll never have the opportunity to tell anyone else, but because you would be the only one able to truly appreciate it." Dumbledore claimed, "When I realized even as I watched Grindelwald try for his bid for power that I could never achieve my goal through simple force, I tried doing it through diplomacy, but I knew even then that I could only have limited success."

"My greatest improvement in power only came about from you actually, whether you realized it or not. At first, when I realized just how powerful and intelligent you were, I attempted to make you my apprentice and take advantage of your own lust for power. I had not seen such potential since Grindelwald, yet unlike him, you rejected my offers for help. Still I knew that you would at least try and have at least some success, and so I decided to use that."

"While you were just organizing the Death Eater movement I could have easily stopped you at any time and made it known to the Ministry, yet I held back. I wanted a true threat to emerge, one that only I seemed capable of stopping. When that did in fact happen, everyone turned to me to save them as I knew they would. They granted me with all kinds of powers that they would never dream of giving one man before, all in an effort to help me stop you."

"I was elected Head of the Wizengamot and the International Confederation of Wizards, brought higher than I ever had gotten, yet I finally plateaued and could reach no higher on my own."

"You had then finally served your purpose and I had already decided to defeat or kill you except you were always too smart to try and face me. So I allowed you to think that a prophecy had been made about you, about a supposed enemy that had yet to be born. I knew that you would try to eliminate this threat as soon as possible and so cause you to fall into a trap."

"The wizard I used to overhear this supposed prophecy, even while I enchanted an unsuspecting self confessed seer Sybil Trelawney was none other than Severus Snape."

"At that point, any spells that I attempted to bring back the dead or create life had failed and so I had been forced to reject them all, turning instead to trying to create a potion."

"However I no longer had the time available to spend working constantly on a potion, nor could I be sure that with the time available to me that I wouldn't already die before it could be made even as old age began to creep up on me."

"That left finding a suitable candidate willing to make the potion for me. I chose Severus for a couple of reasons. First he was still young and still capable of being controlled but also one of the best potions' prodigies the school had ever seen. He was also corrupted and insane enough to actually be willing to spend the countless amount of time trying to create such a potion. The only downside was that he was a Death Eater, so I needed to ensure that his loyalties changed towards me."

"It did not take long for me to ascertain that the one person that Snape cared about was Lily Evans, despite her marrying his long time enemy James Potter. He was even totally irrational about his love for her, which I could use."

"Lily just so happened to be having a son and was due on July 31. I made sure that Sybil Trelawney's false prophecy that Snape heard would refer to her child, but be vague enough to ensure that Snape would not automatically guess this."

"With magic as good as it was, there was a very good chance that she would be able to carry the baby full term, but I had a contingency plan in mind for that as well."

"I needn't have worried however, she delivered baby Harry exactly on schedule. The only problem was that against all odds, another child who could have also fulfilled the prophecy was born premature: Neville Longbottom."

"Fortunately, I even had a contingency plan for this as well."

"Knowing that Peter Pettigrew was actually a spy for you, I eventually managed to persuade the Potters to change their Secret Keeper to him, knowing that he would then immediately turn and give them up to you. This ensured that you would go after Harry Potter instead of Neville Longbottom."

"What you didn't know however was that I arranged for Lily Evans to come across a spell on her own that would sacrifice her own life in order to give protection to her son Harry."

"Even if you had agreed with Snape to let her live, she would die anyway, you would be taken out by trying to kill her baby, and Snape would permanently shift his loyalty to me and spend all of his efforts working to bring Lily back."

"I even managed to gain magical guardianship of young Harry Potter afterwards, which for a time, granted me even greater power in the Wizengamot."

"My plan worked perfectly and nobody ever even knew I did it not even you. You see Tom, I've been using you this entire time."

Voldemort's mind was reeling, he had never even suspected any of this. Even he had been duped and it had now cost him everything.

"Is that why you're here now Dumbledore? Come to gloat over me?" Voldemort asked as tauntingly as he could.

"Not exactly," Dumbledore confessed, "I came because I wanted to witness your rebirth in the place of Harry. When I realized that you had not actually died I wondered just how you did it. The spell should have killed you yet it didn't. I went over the possibilities over and over again yet came up with nothing. I realized that if I could figure it out then I could do it myself. While age can be delayed through a sorcerer's stone or certain potions, it would not guarantee living forever. All it would take would be a very unlucky spell to get hit with and I would still die despite all of my protections and efforts. I needed a way to guarantee that I could always come back. I hoped that you would provide that for me."

Voldemort grinned and said, "That is my little secret Dumbledore and you know my occlumency skills are too strong for you nor will I break to torture. You'll never know."

"That would be where you are wrong yet again," Dumbledore admitted, "I realized that you would never tell me, so I knew I had to find out for myself by tricking you and impersonating you. Your pride would demand that you allow Harry Potter to watch your rebirth and also duel him to prove even to yourself that you were far better than him. This also provided me with the duel that I'd been trying to have against you for so long.

I gave you one last chance then to beg for mercy but you rejected it and now you'll receive none, no matter how much you beg. I know now just how you got your body back since you graciously let me watch, yet it was still unnecessary since I have my own way of creating bodies and people now, not dead but living, clones of anyone I want that remain totally and irreversibly loyal to me."

"Then you've learned nothing from me!" Voldemort laughed, "You still don't know the way to conquer death."

"That's why I made sure you would be forced to tell me." Dumbledore told him, "After my first failed attempt at making a totally obedient clone failed, I realized I would need to opt for plan B. That would be blood magic, something you should be quite familiar with since it has been what has stopped you from killing Harry Potter all these years. You hoped to get around it and finally kill him by taking his own blood into you yet instead you took my blood. My blood on the other hand is what ensures that my clones will always be loyal only to me."

"I first thought of the idea when observing house elves. They have always been forced to be totally obedient to their master and any possessing their master's blood. The most they can do is do something that they were not actually forbidden to do. They cannot divulge their master's secrets nor go against any commands. I would consider house elves to be as perfect of beings as you could possibly have. They are totally loyal and will even do things they do not like because they have an implicit trust in their master that they are doing what is best. They even enjoy working and pleasing their master. Hogwarts for example has many house elves, far more in fact than before I was Headmaster because I allowed them to breed freely and take on any house elves that found themselves unattached to a master. They require little maintenance and they have that innate desire to do whatever I might want, particularly those bound to me and not merely to the castle. I truly love house elves and I wished that wizards could be as loyal to me as they are. It took some work but I finally managed to create the same effect by changing my own blood. Anyone with that blood would be totally obedient to me."

"This not only ensured that I could not be cloned or polyjuiced by anyone other than me, but also as I included some of my blood in the creation of each additional clone, they also had this undying loyalty to me coursing through them. The fact that you also used this blood makes you forced to be totally loyal to me as well."

With a cry of rage, Voldemort struggled to leap at him as he lay there on the ground, only to discover that his bonds were no longer there. There was nothing physically preventing him from grabbing him right then and there, but a force beyond his control was preventing him.

"You won't get away with this!" He roared at him.

"I think you'll find that I already have." Dumbledore pointed out, "You already lack the strength to do anything to me. The duel we had you were only able to do because I allowed it. However if any of your spells had hit me they wouldn't have worked, your own magic not able to leave even a scratch on me. You now have to do everything I tell you. For example if I were to ask you to scratch your nose, pardon me, slit..."

Unbidden, he found his hand already reaching for his slit which served as a replacement for his nose. He seemed to have no power to stop it either.

"How about slap yourself?" Dumbledore suggested, now laughing at him.

He hit his own cheek with a stinging slap.

Still grinning, Dumbledore said, "You see, you're now my totally obedient servant. When you bring back the Death Eaters after I let you use the Dark Mark again, they'll have no idea that you are really my servant. Another war will be waged, causing everyone in Britain to once again turn only to me for aid. It will not only help give me greater power, but also serve as a distraction for my ultimate objection: replace all world leaders with clones loyal only to me. The world will finally be free of all tyranny and oppression as everyone comes to learn just how great things would be if they shared my ideals. Anyone who gets in my way, starting with the Blacks, I'll have you command your Death Eaters to assassinate."

Once again, Voldemort struggled hopelessly to be able to attack him, but he was still powerless.

"Now I think I'll find out just how you managed to cheat death," Dumbledore told him, "Legilimens!"

An assault on his mind immediately began but he found that all of his mental defenses were now useless as Dumbledore searched inside his mind.

He found it, making sure he had gotten everything then withdrew.

"Interesting," Dumbledore claimed, "very interesting. I would have never thought it was possible, but now that I have, I will be certain to use it. Now that that is taken care of, I'll be completely taking over your mind."

Another mental assault hit him as he found his ability to even think weakening, his greatest nightmare now realized as someone took control of him.

All his Occlumency training, all of his magical strength...It was useless.

Just as his last thought still totally free from Dumbledore's influence dimmed out, he heard a voice from far away, a voice he had not heard for years, back when he had only been a face on the back of Quirrell's head. He would have recognized it anywhere however. The voice of Harry Potter.

DUELDUELDUEL

A few hours from when Dumbledore was completely taking over Voldemort's mind, Harry Potter had been shocked to discover that Fleur was missing

Wary of just what had happened, he had been on his way to the judges' tent when he was met by Crouch, who after hearing him demand just what happened to Fleur, decided that he was threatening a tournament judge.

It was a ridiculous charge, one he was sure he would be able to get out of, once someone with an actual head on their shoulders heard what happened, but since he didn't want to actually commit the crime he was accused of by drawing his wand or outright attacking him, he allowed Crouch to lead him back inside the castle, where he was quickly locked in a room.

Hours then went by as he waited impatiently for someone to complain to or at least for Crouch to come back.

Crouch had confiscated his wand, so he couldn't see a way for him to magically break the door down either.

Finally after deciding that he could stand it no longer, he realized that he still had one being that he could call on for help.

"Dobby?" Harry called.

Immediately Dobby appeared right in front of him.

"Dobby I was wondering if you could find out what was going on or perhaps help me find Fleur?" Harry asked him.

A light came on in Dobby's head as he queried, "She is your slave right?"

"I don't consider her to be, but yes, I suppose she is, why do you ask?" Harry questioned.

"A wizard can always find his slaves since they are bound to him wherever they are." Dobby pointed out, "If Harry is wanting, Dobby could use that connection to help you find her!"

"That's perfect Dobby," Harry answered gratefully, "could you at least find out if she is anywhere in the school or school grounds?"

Dobby appeared to be concentrating hard but then finally said, "Dobby found Harry's Gabby, but Harry's Fleur is far away. Dobby can take you to her though."

Before he could really think about it, Dobby grabbed his hand and they both disappeared.

They reappeared in a graveyard of some sort, but as he looked down, he found Fleur lying there on the ground tied up to a gravestone.

"Fleur? Are you all right?" Harry whispered.

She did not move but bending down and touching her neck, he found a pulse.

At least she was alive.

Untying her quickly, he glanced back to spot a figure currently standing quite far away, only his back was turned.

Without a wand, he wasn't about to try and get his attention. Instead he was more focused on grabbing Fleur and getting out of there and then see if he could get help and come back to take out whoever had the audacity to try and kidnap her.

He whispered to Dobby, "Get us out of here Dobby."

Dobby grabbed both of their hands, but instead of them all disappearing, instead he just had a huge look of consternation on his face.

"Dobby cannot." Dobby admitted.

The figure that had been far away turned.

He doubted it was because of either his or Dobby's voice, they were both barely audible he had thought, yet he still turned and began casually walking towards them.

As he approached, he got out of the way of another figure, this one currently lying down.

The figure that was still currently walking towards them did not have to get very far for him to realize just who it was: Albus Dumbledore.

He would have run but that would have involved leaving both Fleur and Dobby behind, and that was something his heart would never let him do.

Instead he could only watch as Dumbledore got closer and closer.

"Ah Harry," Dumbledore said, "I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised that you managed to get here. It's a shame that it was a one way trip."

"I knew you were a monster but kidnapping Fleur?" Harry asked, "I always thought that you swung the other way?"

"I've managed to put aside any silly and distracting sexual appetites." Dumbledore claimed, "I could tell you that I was not the one to kidnap her, but then I doubt you would believe me."

"I have a hard time believing anything you say." Harry admitted.

"Yet I still can't help but wonder why Harry." Dumbledore confessed, "Why do you so easily think me evil? All I have ever done is for the greater good and for your benefit."

"Since I know that you aren't the one I should be trusting to know what is truly right and wrong." Harry told him, "Experience has taught me that."

Dumbledore sighed and said, "I suppose I could try to drag this out and try to convince you that I am not evil, but I really don't see the point. I've long since given up on you and I see no need to waste my time."

"So this is it then?" Harry asked, "You plan to kill me now?"

At these words, Dobby tried to jump at Dumbledore, but instead he didn't seem to go anywhere but up before crashing back down in far more pain than he should have sustained.

"I'm afraid that won't work Dobby." Dumbledore pointed out, "You may not be bound to me as a free elf, but you are still under my employ, which makes me at least partially your master. You can't hurt me, and you also can't Apparate away as long as I don't want you to if that is what you are still trying. Now be a good house elf and tie Ms. Delacour back up for me, please."

Dobby gave him a look of anger even as he tried to resist Dumbledore's command.

Dobby appeared to be in obvious pain, yet he still held on, refusing to obey his will.

"Interesting," Dumbledore claimed, "I never thought I would see a house elf resist their master like that, even a free one. It appears you at least might be better off dead."

"NO!" Harry yelled, "Your fight is with me."

"Very well then," Dumbledore answered, "however since you lack a wand, we'll let it be a duel of the mind then. I already know that you know Occlumency. If you can manage to beat me, then I'll agree to spare all 3 of you."

Harry didn't believe Dumbledore for a second that he would spare them, however he saw no other option. He couldn't leave Fleur or Dobby behind to die, nor could he hope to get very far without a wand anyway. While it was likely he would fail, at least he would try.

"Legilimens!" Dumbledore declared.

Immediately his mind was assaulted in a full on frontal assault.

He'd at least prepared for this, knowing that someday Dumbledore would probably try and get into his mind with such a strong mental attack, but he also had been hoping that he would have help then too. Here he had no one to help him, Dobby being useless in fighting Dumbledore and Fleur still unconscious.

Occlumency was easier than Legilimency, yet still he was already struggling as Dumbledore bore down upon his mind.

He knew that it was only a matter of time as Dumbledore took down his defenses one by one, even as he tried to keep them up.

It took a few minutes, but he could feel Dumbledore about to break down the last one.

Finally with one final burst, Dumbledore got inside as a look of triumph passed across his face.

He seemed to be not looking for something specific, but starting at merely his surface thoughts, his thoughts of panic and fear of what Dumbledore would do plainly obvious to him.

Yet if he didn't stop him, who would? If Dumbledore was still trying to achieve what he guessed he was trying, no one was safe. Not even the girls...

He thought of each of the girls, but when his mind came to Gabrielle, he couldn't help but think of last night and this morning, when they had made love for the first time. How incredible it had felt, how beautiful she was, how he had thought of the many times that they would do it again, some of which would lead to the conception of their own children...

As he thought such thoughts, to his surprise, he found Dumbledore's presence inside of his mind seem to weaken.

"What don't like thoughts of sex huh?" Harry guessed, laughing.

He pressed forward, still thinking of sex in a way that a teenage boy who had just had his first time can.

Dumbledore seemed to reel, trying to get around such thoughts, but he had made them cover up the rest of his thoughts in his mind, making a new shield from them.

Apparently sex really did solve all your problems, he thought, as he pressed forward, not only managing to halt Dumbledore's assault but to turn the tide the other way as he went on the offensive, pushing Dumbledore completely out and then proceeding into his mind.

He suspected that he would not get far, keeping someone out of your mind was different from getting into someone's but as surprised as Dumbledore was his defenses were left open just enough for him to get just a little bit from him, a surface thought.

What he got surprised him.

"I want to make you a clone."

There it was. While he had no idea how or why, Dumbledore intended to somehow clone him.

Even though he didn't have all the details, the irony still struck him.

"It appears that after all this effort towards cloning and creating artificial life, the one thing that stopped you from beating me was the way that humans have always used to create life, through sex. The most natural thing in the world and you don't know how to handle it." Harry claimed.

Dumbledore still appeared to be in shock at failing to break into his mind and Harry knew that he would still eventually manage to find a way in anyway or simply use his wand to take him out physically.

Yet just as he thought this, he felt a hand touch his shoulder and then the next moment he found himself go through the sensation of apparition, before reappearing inside the now familiar Malfoy Manor.

He turned to see Fleur and Dobby standing next to him.

"What happened?" He asked.

"I could ask you the same question." Fleur admitted, "One moment I'm touching the Triwizard cup, the next I'm finding myself in some room, then I have you burst into the room, only for us both to then portkey away for me to find myself in a graveyard, only to get knocked out and then finally wake up with an overwhelming feeling that I need to save you and get you out of there. Was I supposed to?"

"I think that as my slave my need to be saved awakened you." He suggested, "That also caused you to immediately apparate us out, for which I'm grateful. You saved all of our lives."

"What kind of danger were you in? I didn't even see anything else. I could only seem to concentrate on you." She confessed.

He let out a sigh and said, "I think we have a lot to talk about."


End file.
